The district health administration and the City Corporation have decided to carry out disease-control activities in a more coordinated manner and to get the work monitored jointly by the authorities from either organisation.
A joint meeting at the Corporation office on Monday discussed the outstanding issues involved in the division of work, area of operation, monitoring and supervision. Apart from the field workers, District Medical Officer N. Sreedhar, District Programme Manager, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), G. Sunil Kumar, Corporation Health Officer D. Sreekumar and G.R. Anil, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Health of the civic body, participated.
The meeting was called as poor coordination between the Health Services staff and those of the Corporation was affecting disease-control activities. With the Health Department having launched the Four Plus strategy for early disease surveillance and control, it was imperative to thrash out the differences between them, especially since dengue fever was spreading alarmingly in the Corporation areas.
With nearly 30 cases of dengue being reported from the Valiyathura and the Beemapally areas, the health field staff of either body will meet at the government hospital at Valiathura on April 17. Disease-control activities to be carried out in the area will be planned and executed jointly, Mr. Anil said.
The Corporation's Health Officer and the Deputy District Medical Officer will jointly coordinate the activities.
The Corporation has over 90 health staff in various categories, while the Health Services has given a list of 43 field staff, their supervisors and the responsibilities and area of operation of each. In every ward, vector-control and other health-related activities will be planned jointly and implemented in a phased manner, Mr. Anil said.
Of the 86 wards in the Corporation, the field-level health activities in 46 are being taken care of by the Health Services staff.
Dearth of field staff has affected health activities in 40 wards.
While Accredited Social Health Activists deployed through the NRHM are available for vector-control activities in the wards, their supervision was one of the main issues affecting the work.
