Draws up plan ahead of NIDA’s 3-day mass casual from April 18
Responding to the threat of mass casual leave by agitating doctors of Nagaland In-service Doctors Association (NIDA) in support of their demand for increasing superannuation from 60 to 65 years, the chief secretary J. Alam in a memorandum to the principal director DHFW, CMOs, MS instructed them against sanctioning “any leave to any government medical officer or health care professional”.
Further, the government has also reiterated its earlier April 14 order, barring all government doctors from any communication with the press “in matters not connected with discharge of official duty.” The government warned that failure to comply with the April 14 instruction will make officers “liable to disciplinary action”, in addition to deduction of pay for the unauthorised absence on the principle of ‘No Work, No Pay’.
Furthermore, to manage and mitigate any likely impact posed by threat of mass casual leave by a large number of government medical doctors, the chief secretary activated measures at various levels of DHFW.
- State-Level Control Room (SLCR): A state-level control room to be set up with dedicated helpline for coordination and real time monitoring of the situation in the state. The SLCR is to be overseen by the principal director DHFW, who may draw other officers from the directorate to assist him. SLCR shall also assist the principal director to enforce instructions issued in the April 16 and April 14 office memorandum and also provide guidance to any individual requiring access to health care facilities during the period.
- District-Level Control Room (DLCR): A district-level control room shall be set up under chairmanship of an officer not below the rank of ADC/SDO(C) and consist of medical officers and officers from other departments for coordination and real time monitoring of the situation in the district. This control room will maintain constant touch with the state level control room and provide regular status updates for effective monitoring.
a. DLCR shall provide guidance to any individual requiring access to healthcare facilities during the period. A district-level helpline shall also be set up and given wide publicity through media, hospitals etc.
b. Attendance at government hospitals shall be monitored by the CMO, DC and the daily report will be furnished through the principal director and commissioner Nagaland respectively.
c. The CMO in consultation with the DC shall deploy all available contractual/temporary medical and ayush doctors or any other healthcare profession in various capacities in the districts, to fill the gap due to the anticipate “unauthorised absence(of striking doctors) in order to ensure that all routine essential services including OPD, IPD, emergency services are not impacted. Further, any office who had been granted leave or left station should be recalled.
The chief secretary has also attached list of contractual doctors appointed by the government which would also be made available with CMOs and MSs.
d. Deputy Commissiners (DCs) shall hold meeting with available private hospitals/health care providers to work our modalities for management of OPD and referral cases from the government facilities as and when required.
At Dimapur, the OPD and other referrals may be redirected , preferably to CIHSR. In a district with limited availability of private health sector/clinics, arrangements are to be worked out with nearest such facilities available in other districts with the concerned DCs.
e. CMO/MS in consultation with DC shall establish facilitation centres at each health facility till PHC level for aiding patients and management of cases requiring urgent attention such as referral transport etc. For centres, available nurses and para-medical staff in addition to contractual doctors and administrative officers may be used.
f. The Centres are expected to ensure that functional transport like ambulances be made readily available and deployed efficiently across the district for timely transport for urgent medical cases in coordination with DLCR/facilitation centres.
g. The DC shall review supplies of medical consumables, drugs, etc at each government facility and communicate any exigencies to the SLCR for quick replenishment.
h. CMO/MO are to ensure that all health care professionals including doctors, ayush doctors, CHOs, ANM/GNM, ASHAs remain in station and further warned of disciplinary action against those found to be absent from their respective place of duty.
i. DCs shall review implementation of public health programme including TB elimination, malaria programme, AIDS control programme, immunisation etc with CMO and District Programme Managers so as to ensure that all services under the programmes are availed without disruption.
j. The DC shall be over-all in charge of ensuring implementation of the instructions at the district level and take necessary measures to ensure smooth functioning of health services and shall be assisted by the SP, CMO, MS and other officers as may be deemed necessary for assistance. The DC is to ensure sufficient security deployment along with executive magistrates at health facilities to ensure peaceful and orderly conduct of the arrangements. - The principal director DHFW shall be overall in-charge for ensuring that the proposed call by NIDA has the minimum effect on provision of health services to the public including enforcement of various instructions issued by the government with regard to the functioning of the DHFW and various services provided and programmes implemented by it. The PD, in coordination with MD,NHM shall also ensure that facilities like Naga TeleHealth and all public health programmes shall remain fully functional and unaffected during the period of NIDA agitation.
Further, the CS has instructed that all steps undertaken by the officers in accordance with the instructions shall be well publicised so that public do not face any undue hardship.