Dr Sao Tunyi
On the regularization of health personnel recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic, I write this note as an eyewitness to how the crisis unfolded and the circumstances that led to the state government’s decision in question.
At that time, I worked in the State Control Room of the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, assisting in drafting SOPs, advisories, and numerous communication letters. Though not on the frontlines, I worked at the control room, often feeling as if we were part of a medical thriller. The film Contagion often came to mind.
Initially, the disease had no name and the surveillance program monitored it. But as the situation worsened and panic set in, I was also enlisted for COVID duty. I never imagined I would spend over a year working nights and Sundays in the control room, returning to my office room only for short breaks, lying down on the desk to rest. We began each day with a prayer meeting, masked and distanced. Commissioner and Secretary Menukhol John once told me, “Maintain a diary, and keep record of what we are going through. People must know.”
On 30th March 2020, an appeal letter was issued requesting retired medical personnel, final-year students, and PG students to lend a hand during this extraordinary time. Some volunteers came forward, opening OPD services in Kohima (in partnership with the Nagaland Medical Council) after Naga Hospital was converted into a COVID hospital. These services were delivered at Para Medical Training Institute and Agri Forest Sub Centre.
On 7th April 2020, the state medical department wrote to the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, highlighting the shortage of doctors. At that time, Nagaland had only 391 sanctioned doctor posts for a population of 20 lakh, with 27 in-service doctors on study leave. The department requested that state-sponsored doctors in various medical colleges be recalled for 45 days of COVID duty in Nagaland. This did not materialize.
On 15th May 2020, the department issued an advisory stating that due to acute manpower shortage, medical personnel should not be assigned non-medical duties. District task forces were asked instead to requisition staff from other departments for tasks like thermal screening.
PG students and interns studying outside Nagaland were also requested to assist in telemedicine consultations through the state helpline. Doctors from PHCs and CHCs supported the helpline through a roster system. A state mental health helpline was also launched, engaging counsellors from theology, psychology, social work, and related fields.
Initially, Naga Hospital was the only COVID-designated hospital. But as cases surged, more hospitals—including all district hospitals—were converted into COVID hospitals. Isolation wards, quarantine centres, and later COVID Care Centres were set up. COVID ICUs were established. All of this put immense pressure on an already overstretched health system. Some contractual healthcare personnel resigned during this time, while many others endured endless cycles of COVID duty and quarantine.
It was in this context that the recruitment of additional healthcare workers took place. Today, the pandemic is a memory. Many contractual healthcare workers then continue to serve today on contract. It seems unfair to them. But if ever there was a possibility and a necessity for a ‘one time dispensation’ in recruiting healthcare workers and rewarding through regularization, it is this one. During the peak of the pandemic, recruitment of new personnel was far more difficult than it is now.
