Covid-19: It’s time to empower local health institutions
The covid-19 outbreak is a watershed moment for the world powers. From politics to economics and to social order, the fate of several countries is destined to undergo tremendous changes as the number of Covid-19 cases keeps surging by each passing day. The pandemic has caught the scientific and medical community in a fix as there is still no trace of a successful vaccine emerging on the scene even though responses to it are evolving.
There is no doubt that governments, including the one in India, have come across their missed priorities and lack of adequate health care system which is far too inadequate to combat the pandemic. There is a significant concern regarding the lack of protective suits, personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical staffs and personals dealing with such cases besides inadequate number of beds, ventilators and quarantine centers at national as well as local levels.
Health care system includes the organizational set up and structure, financing and provision of health care services to the population, healthcare policies, regulation and laws that enable and govern the functioning of different components of the system. Unfortunately most of the governments have ignore the sector for too long and as a result the ground situation is terribly bad.
The pandemic has exposed the lacunas and loopholes in the entire health structure and the worst affected are those small city hospitals, district level healthcare facilities and village level health centers which are rendered clueless in the wake of the pandemic. One has to admit that those at the forefront, the doctors, paramedics as well as health workers are risking their lives in the line of their duty and the risk could have been minimized only if we had proper protective gear available for them.
It is pertinent to mention here that we have to fight the covid 19 pandemic at grassroot level and empowering such institutions can help us to break the chain more efficiently. But unfortunately these institutions are less discussed and paid less heed to and the staff is hardly equipped to even examine a covid positive patient, leave aside treating and managing. While it is mandatory to have a doctor at a sub-centre, the same cannot be expected to be of any help in the absence of protective gear and other facilities.
More to the point, it is important to empower the foot-soldiers which includes the Asha (Accredited Social Health Activists), Anganwadi workers and ANM (Auxilary Nurse Mid Wife) with suitable health care arrangements as they are the back bone of the healthcare system. But unfortunately they have to operate at a greater risk to their own lives when they have to function without the proper protection. They are the forefront workers at grass root levels conducting home to home surveys and regular interactions with the patients and as such there should be proper arrangements for their safety.
