Malappuram: The health department in the district is ailing with acute shortage of workforce and infrastructural deficit at a time when deadly diseases have re-emerged. Many supervisory posts have remained vacant for long even as the district has the highest number of unimmunised population. The section which prepares and supervises plans to prevent communicable diseases has lacked a head for more than a year.
The post of district nursing officer remains vacant for the last three years and the additional charge is given to another in the department as the public health nurse supervisor. The two posts of district public health nurse are also vacant. The district has no maternal and child health officer to look after the health of mothers and children in the district. There are also no sufficient field staff throughout the district.
“There is serious shortage of workforce in the health department. The district lacks field staff in proportion to the population. The DMO has taken this into consideration and the recruitments are on,” says Dr. R. Renuka, deputy DMO of Malappuram. There are some hiccups in the activities of the department, especially during the ongoing rigorous immunisation drive, she added.
