 Hello, welcome to News Clip. The previous government in Tamil Nadu run by the AIADMK had brought about a scheme called the Amma Mini Clinic to handle the COVID-19 pandemic situation. But now the present DMK government is thinking of strapping the scheme and it has led to several thousand doctors, nurses and other health workers to lose their jobs. The doctors are on protests now demanding that their work be continued and they be absorbed by the other health sectors to talk about the matter and what the Amma Health Clinic is and what can be done by the state government. We have with us Dr. Kasi. Hello, doctor. Thanks for joining us. Could you begin by telling us what exactly is the Amma Mini Clinic, how it came about and how does it, how did it help the state in handling the pandemic situation? Basically, Amma clinics were started by previous AIADMK government in just one year back, just before months, two or three months before the elections, assembly elections by the previous AIADMK government. The purpose of starting this was to cater since there was a fear of COVID also, since it was just the beginning of the second wave of COVID-19 and they wanted people to work for COVID care and to take temperature verification and to do triage or starting out of patients who need treatment and all. They have started this. The primary purpose was COVID care at that point of time but actually it was made, it is meant for taking care of the non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension and other basic diseases. The two in places where there is no primary health center or urban primary health center. So, the stretcher was one medical officer, one doctor, one staff nurse and one housekeeper or Aya. Let us see the composition of that. Actually, at the fag end of they were started, there was a political game actually by the previous AIADMK government. Even then it is, what I see, it is part of the larger plan of the central government basically. Central government has started Ayusman Bharat. Ayusman Bharat scheme, health insurance scheme has two parts. One is insurance for curative health in that the hospital bills will be reimbursed by the central government by that scheme. And another part is wellness clinics. There is a proposal to start more than 1.3 lakhs of wellness clinic which will cater to the non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. And to cater these, they are in need of more than a lack of doctors. So, that is why they started collecting through ROKC also, they collected information about the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases so that they can use this data for further propagation of private sector, pharma companies to directly send the medicines like that. That is a different thing. And this is basically a small primary health center like such a which was started for COVID cap at that point of time. And all these recruitments were given the time frame was only three months is assured. They were given it clearly after that what will happen after this after the three months nobody knew at that point of time. But after the new government took over the same set of all these AMA clinics so called AMA clinics are continuing till now. So, now there is a proposal from the government to terminate these doctors and other paramedical workers which is not good actually. And what they can do they can absorb all the medical offices and staff nurses and other paramedical workers into the Tamil Nadu medical system. Because recently we have started 11 medical colleges and totally now there are 36 government medical colleges and also newer general hospitals and multiple multi-speciality hospitals were proposed and they have been started now. So, they need a lot of manpower. There is a huge need of manpower. So, to fill up that they can use all this. Actually, all government recruitment should be done through TNPC. That is the ideal. But bypassing the since TNPC process, process of recruitment through TNPC takes more time. They have started MRB, Medical Recruitment Board. The previous government they have bypassed the MRB also. They have appointed these people through contact purely on contact basis. I think the any system of contract recruitment should be abolished in the health system because any investment on human resources should be done should be thought of in a long-term basis and to man the huge health infrastructure in our state. Like 36 medical colleges, running 36 medical colleges with adequate manpower is a bigger very big challenge. The Tamil Nadu government needs to recruit more and more doctors. So, they can be absorbed into the health system. That is what we need. Definitely, it should be done and it is the need of the hour. In total, how many doctors, nurses and other health workers does this scheme employ and what will happen? What will be the repercussions to the health system if this scheme is scrapped? I think around 1700 doctors and nurses were recruited at that point of time. They are continuing in service. Since there is no COVID care, systems doesn't need any additional manpower. They can use all these manpower for regular health system work. Another demand, in fact, they should not dismantle all the COVID care health centers. Instead, what they can do, they can use it as infectious diseases hospital. Definitely, if the rainy season comes, the Dengu or other communicable diseases will be rising. At that point of time, we may need additional help. They have to maintain all the health infrastructure which was planned and expanded. They have to retain because in future, more such occurrences, even COVID variant also cannot be ruled out. Then other viral illnesses may come. So, we need to retain all these health infrastructure. To mend these health infrastructure, we need additional manpower resources. So, we can use all these. Thanks a lot for joining us.