With the city gearing up to face the northeast monsoon, the Greater Chennai Corporation is facing another set of challenges — to get more doctors to join the urban primary health centres in the city. With infections expected to rise during this time, the Corporation has been able to add just three doctors to fill in for the 68 vacancies, sources in the civic body say.
Owing to the large number of vacancies in the urban public health centres manned by the Corporation staff, the poorer sections are unlikely to receive proper medical care at most of the 140 hospitals in the city.
The Public Health Department will need to be on high alert and keep vigil to prevent any major outbreak of disease.
Sources said that many of the doctors who had been working with the Corporation have since left their job unable to cope with the pressure of organising health camps at slums.
Over 18 lakh residents are given medical check-ups through health camps during the monsoon, and most doctors are unable to cope with the challenge and the resultant stress, they added. “Over 35 per cent of posts for doctors continue to remain vacant. New doctors are unwilling to join the Corporation hospitals,” said a senior official. The civic body’s plan to use the services of private practitioners to man its hospitals has also not been successful, sources said. Furthermore, in the Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet, doctors are required to do night shifts due to the vacancies.”
A few years ago, the civic body managed to fill four vacancies in the Communicable Diseases Hospital but the doctors failed to join, officials say. Shortage of medical officers continues to affect services at the Tondiarpet hospital, they added.
