The government's move to establish a Public
Health Protection Agency has evoked criticism from the medical Fraternity,
which maintains that it will not be a substitute to Public Health Cadre and
Public Health Department envisaged in the National Health Policy, which has
been adopted by several states.
With the emerging/reemerging of many
diseases and health indices pointing out that Kerala has not made any advancements for the
last ten years, many of the doctors and health experts were for creating a separate Public health cadre and public health
department. The government has mooted the Agency to guide the Health Department for improving and protecting
public health, mainly focusing on prevention. But experts point out it will be
a futile exercise and will not have any major impact.
While mooting the Agency, the
government had pointed out that Public Health did not pertain to health department alone but involved the active
involvement of other departments like water resources, social welfare,
education and LSGD. As
such a separate Agency will help in coordinating the works related to public
health. Though the experts agree that coordination of departments was needed,
they said that an Agency or any coordination unit/agency will not be a
substitute to Public Health Department and Public Health Cadre. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa and Gujarat have
already established public Health Departments.
Agreeing that inter departmental coordination is needed for
improvement of public health, Indian Medical Association, Kerala, president Sreejith N Kumar said ''Coordination can be called by any name like Public Health Protection Agency or some other name. But
an exclusive department for public health is inevitable in the raising threat
of emerging/reemerging of many diseases.''
Source: The New Indian Express
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