Medical officer of Bhilwara model fame issued notice

SHOW CAUSE CMHO asked to reply in 3 days over shifting of rural health staff, officials say doctor may not respond

JAIPUR: Once applauded even by the Centre for successfully implementing the famous Bhilwara model of ruthless containment to check the spread of coronavirus disease, the district’s chief medical and health officer ( CMHO) has been s e r ved a show-cause notice by the zila parishad.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the zila parishad, the district panchayat body, served t he noti c e t o t he CMHO on August 25 to ask him with whose permission and for what purpose he deputed health staff of rural areas to other places. The CMHO was given three days to respond to the notice.

According to the notice, a copy of which is with HT, CEO Gopal Ram Birda sought CMHO Dr Mushtaq Khan’s response on posting doctors and nursing staff out of the rural areas to other places.

“The health care system in t he rural areas i s suffering because of these deputations and the zila parishad has been getting complaints about this. We have sought his reply on why he has posted staff of rural areas to other places and with whose permission,” Birda said on Friday.

The CMHO s a i d i t was a departmental i ssue and he wouldn’t like to comment on it.

Health department officials said as the demand for staff increased in Covid-19 care centres and at dispensaries where coronavirus samples are being

SHIVPRAKASH M NAKATE, Bhilwara district collector

collected, staff from rural areas was deputed on a rotational basis.

“It was because of this human management that the district was able to effectively control the spread of Covid-19 and our model was applauded even by the Centre,” said an official, who requested anonymity.

Bhilwara district was once among the 10 Covid-19 hot spots in the country but in a videoconference with chief secretaries of states in June first week, India’s cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba praised the Bhilwara model, according to then chief secretary DB Gupta.

“The government is planning to implement this model in other places, too, for effective containment of the infection,” he had said.

The zila parishad CEO said people who do good work can also commit mistakes. “Everyone praised him for the good work then but now when there’s an issue, he will be questioned, too,” Birda said.

Bhilwara district collector Shivprakash M Nakate is all praise for the CMHO. “The

CMHO is a good officer and has been working efficiently to effectively control the spread of the infection in the district,” he said without directly commenting on the zila parishad notice.

Meanwhile, the CMHO is unlikely to reply to the CEO’S notice, according to district administration officials.

According to an October 2010 order, the panchayati raj institutions have monitoring and supervisory powers over the health and some other departments in the rural areas.

Bhilwara has tested 71,587 samples until Thursday, out of which 2,105 have tested positive. However, the number of active cases in the district is only 907; others have either recovered or died. There have been 14 deaths in the district.

The CMHO is a good officer and has been working efficiently to effectively control the spread of the (coronavirus) infection in the district.