THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state stares at a third wave of Covid even as the healthcare system, which has successfully managed to meet the pandemic challenge so far, is being plagued by a plethora of problems. Health workers, right from the temporary staff at the field level to professors at medical colleges, are disenchanted by the government for the poor work conditions.
They are on the streets demanding better pay and job conditions at a time when the focus should be on strengthening the public health delivery system to deal with the Omicron surge.
It is expected that the Omicron variant is going to make a lot of people sick and challenge the health system. According to health experts, the surge will be felt by the end of this month. A large number of patients are likely to be treated at home and at the peripheral health centres as happened during the second wave. However, the doctors under the Directorate of Health Services are planning to boycott emergency services and Covid duties en masse on January 18, as a warning to the health department for ignoring their demands.
The doctors under the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) have been protesting for almost a month in front of the Secretariat against the pay anomalies and absence of risk allowance. They staged a protest march on Tuesday against the government for ignoring their protests.
“The doctors, who have spearheaded the pandemic challenge for the last two years, are deeply dejected and anguished. Those who have risked their lives have been ridiculed by slashing their salaries and robbing service benefits,” said KGMOA secretary Dr T N Suresh.
According to him, the doctors will be holding rallies across the state explaining how they have been dragged into the protest. Covid has affected medical education as well as the attention shifted to pandemic management. While the faculty members of medical college hospitals complained of pay anomalies, the resident doctors complained of extra burden and low pay. The latter even boycotted emergency duties and were successful in bringing the government to the negotiation table.
The doctors in medical college hospitals also cautioned against further stretching the resources in the wake of the Omicron surge.“Now, with the advent of Omicron, the threat looms large that the government will again take the easy route of dumping all responsibilities on the medical education department. We want to emphasise the crucial point that every administrator forgets -- medical colleges are for teaching, training, research and tertiary-level patient care which are not available in peripheral hospitals,” said Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA) president Dr Nirmal Bhaskar.
The state will have to increase testing, enter the details of persons infected and their contacts, and monitor of people in home care properly and, at the same time, augment the healthcare in hospitals. All this was being done with the help of around 20,000 temporary staff recruited in the Covid Brigade. However, the brigade members are also protesting against the government for not clearing their salary dues and for retrenchments.
Over 98,000 teens get vaccinated on Day 2
T’Puram: Over 98,000 teenagers in the 15-18 years age group were administered the first dose of the Covid vaccine across 949 vaccination centres on Tuesday. Thrissur topped with 16,625 vaccinations, followed by Kannur (16,475) and Palakkad (11,098). So far, nine per cent of the 15 lakh eligible youth in the age group have been vaccinated. The health department is conducting a special drive for vaccinating the youth in the 15-18 years age group till January 10. Vaccines will be administered at district, general and taluk hospitals as well as community health centres on all days except Wednesday. Primary health centres and family health centres will give the jabs on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.