Reporter’s Diary: Shuffle of health dept heads leaves journos without ‘reliable source’

The officials under Directorate of Medical Services, the Directorate of Medical Education and directors of various government hospitals have been given new posts recently as part of this shuffle.

Though these changes might not badly affect the internal functioning of the department, it is certainly creating a gap in the communication between the reporter and the officials.

When this reporter visited some of these officials for information related to institutions they head, many of them denied being aware of the even perennial issues associated with the particular department.

Though these officials were cooperative, they had a hard time understanding the questions raised by this reporter. Moreover, it was also easier for them to blame their predecessors on certain issues and assure the scribe to consider all the issues that have not been addressed by the previous officials.

While obtaining accurate information on health statistics has always been a tiresome chore, now it has become interacting with junior level officials, who aren’t authorised to speak to the media and cannot be held responsible for data obtained.