CHENNAI: Around 5,000 village health nurses (VHNs) across the state are planning to go on casual leave on Thursday to exert pressure on the directorate of public health and preventive medicine to fill 2,300 vacancies in health subcentres.
According to the village health nurses, of the total 5,000 VHNs, around 2,000 will assemble at the DMS campus in Teynampet on September 7.
Speaking to TNIE, G Gomathi, executive president, of the Tamil Nadu Government Village Health Nurses Welfare Association, said the DPH should stop making the VHNs register pregnant women, children and other details on multiple platforms. The long-standing demand to appoint a data operator for the work has not been addressed, she said.
“Though we register details of maternal and infant mortality along with those of pregnant women and adolescent-related scheme updates on the PICME portal, the officials, instead of taking the information from that portal, again demand data from VHNs to enter details in Google. So the VHNs, even after duty hours, have to sit and analyse and send the details. It is double work for us and it’s not acceptable,” Gomathi said.