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State appoints two health directors for smooth execution of schemes
The objective of the appointments is to manage additional programmes related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, vector-borne and transport; review and monitoring, in an efficient manner, say health officials.
In an effort to improve efficiency in the state health department, the Maharashtra government has appointed two health directors to deal with the increased workload and better management of national and state health programmes. Dr Anup Kumar Yadav and Dr Archana Patil, the two new directors, have accepted the charge.
The objective of the appointments is to manage additional programmes related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, vector-borne and transport; review and monitoring, in an efficient manner, say health officials.
The health department which has a staff of at least 20,000 people and a budget of Rs 1,900 crore also has to deal with staff crunch and functioning in rural areas.
Confirming the change in the state’s health department, Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, department of health and family welfare, Maharashtra said, “The state has got two health directors now, director 1 and director 2. It was a long pending decision which has been taken.”
Vyas said, “The appointment was not a hasty decision. It was decided two years ago, but implemented now. The change itself took two years for us to finalise. We were planning to have a territorial bifurcation and initially wanted Mumbai and Nagpur as the headquarters, but chose Pune over Nagpur because it is near Mumbai and most of the departments are located here. Besides this, it was also done to improve the functionality of the department.”
The two directors will report to the commissioner of national health mission (NHM) of the state, Vyas said.
Dr Rahul Gethe, officer of special duty, health ministry, said, “It was noticed that the state was overburdened due to the national health programmes which is massive in nature and need heavy funding. Some of these programmes include Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Yojana, AYUSH (Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), child health and school health programme among others.”
He said it was seen that the department was unable to handle all its responsibilities efficiently, including the state’s own programmes and departments and therefore the decision was taken.
Dr Patil said they took charge in March, the beginning of the financial year.
In service for the last 34 years, Dr Patil described the decision as a fundamental re-structuring from the time the state health department was established in 1970.
She said, “The appointment of two directors will bring in greater efficiency.”
About the increased workload, she said, “New departments have been added like transport, HIV, tuberculosis, reproductive and child health and vector-borne which earlier were not merged in the state health programme and were national programmes. Also, there is a staff crunch of at least 20 to 30 per cent. This burdens the current employees and hence increases workload.”
“The health department needs seniors and specialists like doctors and paramedics in peripheral areas. Such vacant posts will be filled aggressively after the elections,” she added.
Dr Yadav who holds the joint charge of commissioner and mission director, NHM, Maharashtra and health director said, “The decision will help many head of departments (HODs) from commuting from Mumbai to Pune and back. This will ease the daily meetings of the 13 head of departments. This was needed as it is a functional necessity.”
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, former health director and public health specialist, said, “The state needs more manpower and many people are working on an additional charge. This is leaving people overworked and burdened. Hence, proper monitoring of all the departments was required and thus the division.”
Dr Nitin Bilolikar, deputy director of health services, Pune region, said that the decision is similar to the bifurcation of the departments of public health and medical education to deal with the scale of activities and work pressure. “It should have been done long ago,” he said.
Directors say
“The decision will help many head of departments (HODs) from commuting from Mumbai to Pune and back. This will ease the daily meetings of the 13 head of departments. This was needed as it is a functional necessity.”
Dr Anup Kumar Yadav
The health department needs seniors and specialists like doctors and paramedics in peripheral areas. Such vacant posts will be filled aggressively after the appointments.”
Dr Archana Patil
HEALTH ACTIVISTS SPEAK
‘Maharashtra’s health dept lacks strong leadership’
Dr Anant Phadke, health activist, said lack of strong leadership is one of the weaknesses of the department. “I hope such a decision helps them achieve their targets because there are many issues like staff crunch, lack of good quality people among others. All of this should be addressed. The decision of having two state directors for health services can also be looked at in a positive way only if they could solve the health issues in the state,” he added.
‘IAS officers should not run health department’
Dr Abhijit More, co-convenor, Jan Arogya Abhiyan (JAA), said, “It was always a sole director who handled the state health department but this government has handed over the department to bureaucrats which is not a good sign. A doctor who spends 30 years in the health department is forced to work under an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer who has an experience of just seven to eight years and that too is a bureaucrat and non-medico.” He said freedom of decision should be given to the doctors rather than bureaucracy and only if the government is in need of an administrative head, they should come up with Indian Health Services (IHS) rather than hire an IAS for the health department. “We have been demanding that doctors should be trained under IHS so that they understand administrative issues and handling of the department,” he said.
‘Increase budget allocation’
Dr Deepak Sawant, former state health minister agreed that the budget allotment for the state never met the demands. During his tenure in 2017- 18, he had demanded Rs 4,500 and received Rs 1,400 crore. He said poor budget and delayed allocations results in poor planning and inefficiencies. “Hence, for proper planning, I had proposed two seniors to look after the whole state. Also, there is a huge staff crunch of about 20 per cent. This also leaves the existing staff in a burdened state. Also, there are more than 400 doctors who go on leave every year and this leaves us with fewer people, so better supervision is needed,” Sawant said.
‘Health scheme needs more budget’
Dr Satish Pawar, additional director National Health Mission and former state health director general said, “Every year budget demand increases by 10 to 12 per cent as per the growing need. The public health department of the state is huge and there are many large schemes that need large budgets. One of the expensive ones is Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Yojana which takes up more than Rs 1,500 crore of the total budget as more than 90 per cent of the state’s population is covered under it. It covers around 970 diseases. Hence, we need more budget for this scheme.”
