Members of the Public Health Department Officials’ Association and the Tamil Nadu Multipurpose Health Workers’ Welfare Association on Wednesday observed a fast on the premises of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services, demanding the creation of post of health inspectors and promotions, among other things.
J. Lakshmi Narayanan, State general secretary of the Public Health Department Officials’ Association, said the implementation of a Supreme Court order on retrospective promotions for 1,651 integrated health inspectors was pending with the Finance Department for seven years. “Similarly, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine had sought the nod for 1,002 health inspector grade-1 posts and 2,715 health inspector grade-2 posts and this too is pending with the department,” he said.
He said there was a need for at least 14,000 health inspectors to take public health schemes to the people. But there were only around 2,000 health inspectors as of now, he said.
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“For COVID-19 management, the State recruited 1,650 trained workers on outsourcing basis. Their contracts are ending this month. If their services are terminated, field-level work will be hit hard,” he added.
The body launched an indefinite fast but stopped with a day’s fast after the Health Secretary said that their demands would be looked into.