mangalore today
name
name
name
Friday, March 29

Medical staff shortage cripples ART centres

Medical staff shortage cripples ART centres


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, April 30, 2016: A total lack of medical officers has crippled functioning of the  ART, Anti-Retroviral Therapy Plus Centre, located at the district government hospital at Udupi  and the ART Centre in Kundapur.

All three medical officer posts at the ART Plus Centre have been vacant for the last six months, while the lone medical officer post at the ART Centre in Kundapur too lies unoccupied.

The ART Centre in Udupi was started in 2008 to provide the first-line of ART regimen to HIV-positive persons; it was upgraded to an ART Plus Centre in 2010. ART Plus Centres provide second-line regimen.   Of the 5,519 HIV-positive persons registered with the ART Plus Centre, 4,075 are being provided ART treatment. At the ART Centre in Kundapur, there are 867 registered HIV-positive persons, with 703 receiving ART treatment.

Nearly 120 patients visit the ART Plus Centre every day. As there are no medical officers, the counsellors have been directing the patients to go to the outpatient department (OPD) at the district government hospital for treatment.   But this is not without its problems.


The OPD is teeming with patients. “Most patients do not want to go to the OPD because of the lack of privacy there, unlike at the ART Plus Centre. But with no medical officer here, we have to force them to go there for treatment,” an employee at the centre informed.  Shanthi Naronha, project director of Deepa Jyoti Positive Network, a non-government organisation, said, “When patients are provided treatment under a single roof at the ART Plus Centre, they feel good. But when they are asked to go to the OPD and other departments, it is difficult for them.”

Vacancies :  The posts of community care coordinator and lab technician too are vacant at the ART Plus Centre. As a result, the lab technician at the Kundapur ART Centre and the lab technician at the district government hospital work there in turns for three days a week.

“The situation is critical and government must take corrective action urgently,” said Veena Shetty, secretary of Jeevan Sangharsha, another NGO.


Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print
Error:NULL
Write your Comments on this Article
Your Name
Native Place / Place of Residence
Your E-mail
Your Comment
You have characters left.
Security Validation
Enter the characters in the image above