Tamil Nadu is set to see the creation of 642 new Health Sub Centres (HSC) in rural and urban areas. However, there is a catch. The new facilities have been approved, but without new staff posts and basic infrastructure support. Instead, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM), who are working in Primary Health Centres (PHC), will be redeployed to the new HSCs.
This decision has raised some serious questions on how the Health department has been handling acute shortages of manpower, including some 3,000-odd vacancies of Village Health Nurses (VHN)/ANMs for the past four years, while adding on new health infrastructure.
