KOCHI: The Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) has written to the District Medical Officer (DMO), protesting against the recent video on community response network course for students released by the health department and the National Health Mission (NHM). According to the KGMOA, the video fails to mention the staff working at the grassroots in the healthcare sector and this has affected their morale.
The video released on September 1 is aimed at creating awareness among students on how the government and public health systems are fighting the pandemic at the grassroots. It is a whiteboard animation, and the video was prepared by Coronasafe Network which is an open source public utility by innovators to support government efforts.
“The video gives false information to the society that only ASHA workers, anganwadi staff, Kudumbashree and ward members are involved in Covid-19 activities which is not true. It is an insult to medical officers and field-level health workers as well as their supervisors, who are planning, leading, monitoring and supervising all the activities at the ward-level. These are the people who shoulder the responsibility in the fight against Covid,” said the letter sent last week.
According to Deepa K H, district president, KGMOA, “The health inspectors, medical officers and other staff involved in swab collection and testing, take risks and work round-the-clock. Though they are facing many issues, they are doing their duty while dealing with suspected or confirmed patients”.
“The video released by the health department has affected their morale. At this juncture, when all the employees are tired, yet struggle to move on, such actions can only hurt them. We received complaints from health workers which made us take up the issue with the DMO,” she added.