KASARAGOD: On April 30, the Directorate of Health Service (DHS) promoted 67 nurses as grade I nurses and transferred them to Kasaragod. On May 5, the district medical officer sent them the appointment orders. Yet, after nearly a month, only 13 senior nurses have joined duty, said officials.
Of the 13 nurses, five joined at Tata Trust-built Covid hospital at Chattanchal, and four each at the general and district hospitals. Officials said nurses were lobbying hard to evade their transfer to Kasaragod, forcing the additional director of health service to issue another circular asking them to immediately report for duty at the new stations.
Of the 67 nurses posted to Kasaragod, 26 are from Thiruvananthapuram, 21 from Palakkad, 15 from Alappuzha, four from Pathanamthitta, and one from Wayanad. Tata hospital had 30 vacancies for senior nurses, General Hospital had 23, and District Hospital had 14. Senior nurses are the workhorses of intensive care units and specialty centres.
Officials said the 21 nurses from Palakkad got their transfers frozen and were reappointed in the same district. Palakkad had 25 vacancies for grade I nurses. Several others have directly written to the DHS to get a posting of their choice. On May 25, additional director of health service Dr Bindu Mohan put out a circular asking nurses to report at the respective districts they were transferred to and join the hospitals assigned to them by the district medical officers.
If they wanted a transfer out, they should apply with the recommendation of their district medical officer, she said in the circular. She also asked the district medical officers to share the details of all the nurses who had not reported for duty.