With new team at helm, transparency and coordination become priorities

Chennai

With the top guards of the Public Health Department going for a complete makeover, the new team has the task of tackling COVID-19 on several levels against the challenges so far including ensuring more transparency in their handling of cases and better coordination.

 According to a release, the RGGGH Dean Dr R Jayanthi left on a long leave owing to lower back pain. Dr Narayanaswamy, who is taking the additional charge, has been working with the team of doctors and other healthcare workers at the forefront since the first few cases COVID-19 were registered in the city.

 “There are no new challenges. We, as a team, have been trying to fight COVID-19 since the beginning but the increasing trend is something difficult to deal with,” Narayanaswamy said. He added that the hospital receives a lesser number of emergency cases these days but critical COVID19 patients are increasing.

 Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr TS Selvavinayagam, who replaced Dr K Kolandaisamy after his retirement in May, is now about a month and a half in his new role and has been quite busy since.

 “We have seen challenges in the public health sector and the duties and responsibilities are almost on a similar routine. However, COVID is being managed by the best available resources and as per the ICMR protocols in the State,” says Dr T S Selvavinayagam.

 Talking about the additional accountability and ensuring transparency, he said that the media was not focused on them earlier but now they ought to respond to mediapersons every day.

 Public health experts say the appointment of Health Secretary J Radhakrishna would help better coordination between civic authorities and health department.

 “The health secretary also oversees the civic authorities as the nodal officer. There has been a gap between the two when it comes to protocols, recording the number of cases or the death reports,” said a member of the expert committee in the State.