IAS officers highlight lack of health infrastructure to fight COVID-19 in govt survey

Around one-third of the IAS officers across the country, who participated in a government survey, has said that people are alarmed and panicky due to COVID-19 even as a large proportion among them exposed the inadequate healthcare infrastructure to deal with the situation like lack of isolation beds, ventilators, ICU facilities, and personal protective equipment like masks and gloves.

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The officers also appear to give more credit to the state and local governments than the Centre when it comes to the question of whether sufficient steps to combat Covid-19 have been taken by these units.

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The findings are part of the 'National Preparedness Survey on COVID-19: Responses of District Collectors and IAS Officers (2014-2018 Batches)' conducted by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) to get a "bird’s eye view of the governance challenges" while dealing with the "greatest health crisis India faced since Independence". While 466 IAS officers registered for the voluntary online survey, only 266 submitted their responses.

"Majority of districts across the country highlighted shortage of medical staff, equipment and facilities like ICU beds, ventilators, ambulances, oxygen cylinders etc. The Sub-District hospitals and health centres centers readiness is an area of focus, particularly in the north-eastern region. Furthermore, it was felt that the healthcare workers at district level need capacity building trainings for COVID-19...In some districts, there is a perceived shortage of testing kits, other facilities and testing centers in a large number of districts," the report said.

While 92% of the IAS officers agreed that people in their jurisdiction or regions were well aware and informed of the pandemic, the survey conducted during March 25-30, 75% among them were of the view that public are alert, cautious and taking necessary precautions.

Eighty-two out of the 266 officers or 30.82% who participated in the exercise felt that people "alarmed and panicking" while 104 officers or 39.09% believed otherwise and the rest remaining neutral. Curiously, the report released on Thursday said 69% of the officers -- the figure arrived by adding those who disagreed there was panic with those who marked neutral -- were of the view that there was no panic. For the other 19 questions, the report did not add those officers who marked neutral with those agreeing together.

When it comes to the availability of critical infrastructure needed for fighting COVID-19, 71.8% officers highlighted the non-availability of adequate ventilator machines in district and sub-district hospitals. None availability of sufficient Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds were highlighted by 59% while 28% spoke about the non-availability of isolation beds in hospitals in district and sub-district level.

On the availability of personal protection equipment like masks and gloves, 47.36% officers spoke about its non-availability while only 28.57% felt that there was adequate stock with them.

Asked whether the governments have taken sufficient steps to tackle the virus spread, 84.96% of the officers said state governments have done well while 84.58% said the local governments are performing well. However, 59% of the officers said that the on-ground preparedness of local health machinery to handle COVID-19 is adequate while 22% disagreed.

Among the officers who are in the ground leading the efforts, 81.57% said the Centre has taken sufficient steps. Interestingly, around 10% of the officers felt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for 'Janata Curfew' on March 22 not was effective on the ground in keeping people at home.

Identifying the main problems in the states, officers from Andhra Pradesh said there were facing a huge challenge in identifying foreign returnees and putting them in isolation while those from Assam pointed out that people were not following lockdown properly even as there are several migrating within state and coming from other states like Mizoram.

Officers posted with Delhi government spoke about inadequate health infrastructure and testing facilities while highlighting the need to do enough testing for people who are suspected cases. In Jharkhand's Dumka, the officers said they cannot run ventilators as they do not have an anaesthetic there.