Final yr MBBS, nursing students to join battle against Covid

KOLKATA: The final year MBBS and nursing students will be roped in to increase the number of health workers in the fight against Covid pandemic.

At the same time, the state government has also recently completed the recruitment of 13,244 health workers to provide better health services to people at this trying time of Covid pandemic, besides taking steps to augment the oxygen beds in different health facilities.

There are around 2450 final year MBBS students and they are provided with special training to fight against Covid. Similarly, around 2,021 final year nursing students will also be roped in and provided with the necessary training.

In a bid to increase the number of health workers, the recruitment on contractual basis through walk-in-interviews is going on in full swing. Already 481 specialist doctors, 3516 staff nurses, 3177 nurses, 581 laboratory technicians, 352 attendants, 90 para-medical workers, 25 molecular biologists and 11 cooks have been recruited. Around 2200 interns and 1300 final year Post Graduate students have also been roped in.

On Thursday, Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the state government held a meeting with all District Magistrates through video conference from Nabanna Sabhaghar. Around 100 oxygen beds have been set up in ESI hospitals in the state.

At the same time, relaxations have also been given in the tender process to set up the PSA oxygen plants in state-run hospitals. As many as 105 PSA oxygen plants are getting installed in different state-run hospitals in the state and the state Public Health Engineering department is setting up 35 of the same.

With the present rate of Covid cases in Bengal, the state government has felt the need to set up more oxygen beds. In such a condition, all options are being looked into to increase the number of oxygen beds and directions in this regard have also been given to the district authorities as well. There are many hospitals where the civil work of setting up of PSA oxygen plants is complete. So, the PHE department has also been asked to complete the necessary electrical work so that the plants can be made functional at the earliest.

Meanwhile, teams of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Women and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights are visiting the state in connection with the post-poll violence amid the Covid pandemic.

A team of the Ministry of Home Affairs already visited the state in connection with the same.

The state government needs to make all necessary arrangements for the visit of the teams. It needs a mention that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said earlier that the state was absolutely peaceful and BJP was making post-poll violence an issue out of nothing by spreading fake videos as they couldn't accept people's mandate.