Centre to beef up Covid management

The Centre is set to bring in a ‘model contract’ and ‘model remuneration’ system to scale up workforce across states ahead of a possible third Covid wave.Guidelines are in the offing to draft in interns, train doctors across specialties within Covid critical care management, speed up basic nursing training and outline Covid specific modules for Ayush workers, Anganwadi workers and civil volunteers.Key to the manpower scale-up plan is a ‘schedule’ drawn up for all health facilities, down to the Primary Health Centre (PHC), which identifies and outlines work areas that can be distributed to other trained staff to lessen the overall hospital burden in case of a surge in infections or other emergencies.On May 29, the Centre reconstituted empowered groups to set up one on ‘Augmenting Human Resources and Capacity Building’ to man additional ICU, oxygen and other hospital infrastructure being ramped up to prepare for future Covid waves.ET has learned that after many rounds of discussions, the empowered groups drew up guidelines for the manpower scale-up that can be adopted across states for readying trained workforce over the next few months. These were also deliberated upon at a recent meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. The Ministry of Health will announce these over the next few days.To bring in more medical experts to aid in Covid management, the empowered group is learnt to have recommended shorter basic Covid-19 specific critical care modules across categories. Similarly, modules are planned to rope in final year medical students and interns to lend a hand, in case of a surge.The Indian Nursing Council will also speed up short-term trainings for assistant nurses to add to the ramp-up. Similarly, modules are in the offing to train Ayush practitioners in basic patient care. The scale-up is planned across several categories. A major ramp-up in nursing staff, technicians and support staff for Covid care management is envisaged.For three major categories––medical practitioners, nursing and support staff and technicians –– over 76 training modules have been identified. While some of the training modules are in place, others are being firmed up. Most of these courses will be rolled out online.However, a few weeks of on-the-job/ in-hospital training prior to formal hiring will be part of the course. A minimum six-month contract for such employees is likely to be suggested.The guidelines will detail training modules for Anganwadi and Asha workers to expand door to door outreach in rural areas for basic monitoring of Covid cases and Covid patient treatment.Basic pandemic related modules will be outlined for civil volunteers, NGO workers and social workers.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36Petre