Manoj Namboori Madhathil of Payyoli sounded happy on Thursday. His five-hour-long solo sit-in protest against the vanishing of doctors at the community health centre at Meladi during duty hours two days ago had had an impact. The Health Department has decided to depute a doctor at the outpatient ward there till 6 p.m. every day.
“I had gone to the hospital with fever in the evening. But there was no doctor in the OP section. There were many other patients too who were waiting. I thought I should stage a protest to drive home our collective opinion,” he told The Hindu over phone.
The OP timings at this community health centre were recently extended till 6 p.m. However, it has been alleged that the doctors wind up work by afternoon itself. Mr. Manoj claimed that they did not seem to pay attention to the plight of the patients, including children.
Though the vice-president of the local block panchayat tried to pacify Mr. Manoj to withdraw the protest, he did not relent. Later, the medical officer arrived at the hospital by around 8.30 a.m. after which it was decided to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
The meeting involving the hospital management committee and people's representatives directed to ensure that at least one doctor was present there every day in the OP section till 6 p.m.
However, V. Jayasree, District Medical Officer, said that the OP timings were extended at the CHCs in Valayam, Thalakkulathoor, Orkkatteri, Meladi, Narikkuni and Mukkam recently. However, most of these health centres had severe staff shortage. Though the Meladi CHC required a minimum of eight medical staff to ensure OP timings till 6 p.m., it currently had only four people, she added.
