THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government’s much-trumpeted Covid Brigade initiative to intensify the fight against the pandemic is turning out to be a farce. Though over 10,600 people -- including 2,286 doctors -- registered to join the brigade, the government has given the nod to recruit only 65 doctors across the state from the pool.
This is happening when every district is demanding more healthcare staff to manage Covid at tertiary care hospitals and second-line and first-line treatment centres.
Health Minister K K Shailaja had launched the initiative last month with much fanfare. But statistics show that the government has deployed, besides 65 doctors, only 169 staff in other categories for Covid duty so far. According to sources with the health department, they are getting repeated calls from those who have registered with the Covid Brigade but the authorities concerned are unable to depute them as the government is hesitant to give approval. While there are 367 modern medicine doctors in the Covid Brigade, a majority of those who have registered are ayurveda practitioners.Dr Rajmohan, an ayurveda specialist from Pathanamthitta who used to work in Bali, Indonesia, registered with the special pool around a month back.
“When the coronavirus outbreak happened, I returned home. After quarantine, I decided to join the Covid Brigade. I wanted to do my bit. Since then, I have been in touch with the authorities regularly, requesting to be allotted duty. But I am yet to receive a call-up,” Dr Rajmohan said.
A senior official with the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, which is reeling under severe staff shortage, said the hospital authorities have been requesting for recruitment of more doctors from the Covid Brigade for quite some time. “People are willing to join but we don’t know why the government is not giving the permission to recruit more hands,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mohammad Asheel—a member of the state’s Covid-19 task force—said the Covid Brigade is a reserve pool and deployments would be made when the situation arises. He claimed the government has posted around 400 professionals from the Covid Brigade pool, which is not reflected in the statistics available.
“In some districts, we are unable to deploy people from the Covid Brigade because there are applicants who were shortlisted before the launch of the initiative,” Dr Asheel said. Health department sources also claimed that some of the modern medicine doctors registered with the Covid Brigade expressed unwillingness to join when contacted.
At the same time, Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) general secretary G S Vijayakrishnan demanded the government deploy more healthcare workers immediately. “There is no point in delaying recruitment. The pandemic situation is worsening by the day, and in the coming week, the cases may double. Hospitals are struggling with staff shortage,” he said.
