Pre-monsoon health care drive fails to take off
The pre-monsoon healthcare drive in the district, initiated by the state health department, has failed to take off, with the monsoon just a couple of days away.
The district medical officer was asked by the health minister at a recent meeting, to submit a detailed action plan on stepping up disease-prevention measures, before May 16. And that has not happened.
Prior to the preparation of the action plan, the health department had also been asked to convene health meetings in all the 14 block panchayats before May 15.
Meanwhile, the DMO has cited lack of sufficient field staff for the delay in preparing the action plan. “As the field staff of the department had been assigned census duty, they were not available for data collection and other work which delayed the preparation of the action plan. We had informed the minister about this and he agreed to wait for two more weeks for the report,” said district medical officer, Dr R.Sudhakaran.
The action plan report would be submitted within a week or two, he added. Though block and panchayat level health meetings were conducted, the officials concerned failed in sending the reports to the DMO on time.
It has been pointed out that the delay in submitting the action plan would affect the pre-monsoon healthcare drive in the district which is under the threat of epidemics during monsoon.
However, the district has taken a lead in mobilising the local bodies in stepping up monsoon disease prevention measures and in distributing the funds earmarked by the National Rural Health Mission for carrying out source-reduction, cleaning and sanitation activities, the DMO added.
“Preventive measures have already been kickstarted in various parts of the district. A convergence of pre-monsoon healthcare and sanitation activities carried out by various agencies and local bodies is what we needed. This is essential for effective utilisation of funds in a productive manner,” he said.
The state government had already allocated Rs. 1.74 crore to the district to step up disease preventive measures.
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