Pune: Zilla Parishad to hire more healthcare professionals; plans on ramping up sample testing & contact tracing

Amid the surge in cases, the Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) has planned on intensifying COVID-19 contact testing and providing effective care to the positive cases. The aim is to gear up health care systems across 13 regions that fall under Pune ZP.

According to media reports, Pune ZP is looking to hire healthcare professionals on three months contractual basis. They need 1,489 health care staffers including 204 doctors.

As many as 1,602 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Pune ZP since the inception of coronavirus. Of the 1,602 cases, there are 896 COVID-19 active cases, 32 patients have succumbed to the virus and 674 patients have been discharged/cured so far.

In a TOI report, "If required, we will extend the service period of these health staffers by another three months, depending on the situation. For now, we have to activate our village-level health sub-centres for collecting samples, contact tracing and related work, " said Ayush Prasad, the Pune ZP CEO.

While speaking to TOI, Bhagwan Pawar, District health officer said, "We endeavour to rope inadequate medical practitioners and necessary staff at the 48 COVID Care Centres (CCC) across the district." Furthermore, he added, "Once we get additional manpower, our staffers and doctors will work in villages in their limit."

Across 13 tehsils, some of them were bound to acquire several isolation beds from private hospitals to enhance the heal the care system in the region. Throwing some more light on the matter, Dr Sachin Kharat the medical officer from Haveli tehsil informed TOI that, "We are acquiring about 1,700 beds of 12 private hospitals to isolate patients and provide them treatment."