SHILLONG: The Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya chairman John F Kharshiing has mooted a boost in the healthcare manpower by inducting basic volunteer nurses, who previously had not qualified for nursing jobs in the state.
“While appreciating that it is not easy to increase overnight the medical manpower requirement, we, however, suggest and request that the state government to consider advising the Meghalaya Public Service Commission and the Health department to recall and extract the past list of hundreds of youths’ applicants who did not qualify for nursing jobs so as to re-invite them for induction in collaboration with the nursing institutes of the state, so as to mobilise them to at least qualify as ‘basic volunteer nurses’, as part of the state’s preparation to fight COVID-19,” Kharshiing, in a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, said.
Congratulating the state and the central governments for its efforts to break the chain of the pandemic, Kharshiing highlighted the havoc wreaked by the pandemic globally, adding that some countries even lack manpower.
Pointing out at the crisis of manpower in some countries across the globe, he said, “While we read about the state and Centre’s focus on the increase of isolation and ICU beds, we are yet to hear a detailed road map about enhancing the healthcare manpower, which would be required with every isolation and ICU bed”.