201 health officers waiting for appointments

Aurangabad, Dec 13:

In all, 201 community health officers in the district are waiting for appointments despite undergoing training. The district council has not conducted their counseling in the fixed time and now due to the model code of conduct for the grampanchayat elections, scheduled counseling programme on Monday has been extended further.

There are 51 health centres and 279 sub-centres in the district. Under the Ayushman Scheme, the sub-centres have been categorized into Arogyavardhini centres. Hence, the Ayurvedic and Yunani doctors appointed on the post of Community Health Officers (CHO) and were imparted six months training of Alopahty Bridge Course at the Family Planning Training Centre. The district health machinery will strengthen with the appointments of the CHOs, opined the sources.

However, the appointments have been hampered due to the model code of conduct implemented for the elections of 618 grampanchayats in the district. Meanwhile, the CHOs are expecting that the counseling process should be conducted honestly without any political influence or pressure for getting the preferred locations.

The National Health Missions had directed to complete the counseling process between December 7 and 10. Many other district have followed the directives and completed the appointment process. However, the process has delayed in Aurangabad district.

Meanwhile, district health officer, Dr Sudhakar Shelke said that the CHOs will be informed about the further process as per the new schedule.