Village Health Nurses (VHN) have demanded that the move to engage Mid-Level Health Providers (MLHP), nurses recruited on a contract basis, in carrying out immunisation services at Health Sub-Centres (HSC) should be dropped. They alleged that the Health department was trying to take away the immunisation works from VHNs and rope in contract nurses due to pressure from the Central government.

The Tamil Nadu Public Health Nurses Federation met Health Secretary P. Senthil Kumar and Mission Director of National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu, Arun Thamburaj, and put forward their demands. P. Nirmala, State president of the federation handed over a memorandum.

The association demanded that the decision to appoint MLHPs at HSCs should be scrapped. They also demanded the Health Minister Ma. Subramanian to take back a statement “falsely accusing” VHNs of refusing to take up COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunisation services. VHNs and Sector Health Nurses had taken up field work during the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown and carried out vaccination and other pandemic-related work. They alleged that the Minister told reporters that MLHPs were roped in as VHNs refused to do such work. This has humiliated VHNs, the association said.

Posing a question to the Health Minister, the association asked how was it possible for 4,888 contract MLHPs to carry out the final phase of COVID-19 vaccination works when 8,713 HSCs functioned as vaccination centres and that too without training. COVID-19 vaccination started in January 2021, and the majority were covered during 2022. When this was the case, how can MLHPs who were recruited from the end of December 2021 to January 2022 carry out the COVID-19 vaccination, they asked.

While registering their condemnation for the Minister’s statement, the association demanded that the move to appoint MLHPs at HSCs following pressure from the Union government as a part of its national health policy should be dropped. The Minister should stop falsely accusing VHNs of covering up this truth, they said.

The association has decided to intensify protests if the Health Minister does not take back the statement. They demanded that the vacant posts of VHNs should be filled, and data entry operators should be involved to upload immunisation details on the U-WIN portal.