[ Amar Sangno ]
ITANAGAR, May 16: In what could be termed as a blot to the Arunachal Pradesh Health Services, as many as 67 nurses working under the National Health Mission and Directorate of Health Services have been found with fake credentials.
Among them are five as Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM), one as General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) – all regular government employees. 17 ANMs and 44 GNMs were on contractual jobs.
The Mission Director of the National Health Mission has issued termination letters to 61 contractual nurses on Saturday.
Health and Family Welfare Special Secretary Dr Tapasya Raghav confirmed the termination of 17 ANMs and 44 GNMs, who were all on contractual jobs.
This daily could not contact the Director of Health Services for his reaction regarding the action initiated against the nurses who are on regular government jobs with fake certificates.
The state government had constituted a committee to check the authenticity of the nurse’s credential headed by Special Secretary Health and Family Welfare cum Mission Director National Health Mission Dr Tapasya Raghav on 19 June, 2017.
The committee had screened about 1,663 nurses, including regular and contractual nurses working under various government hospitals and health centers across the state, out of which 65 nurses (including one staff nurse, three regular ANMs, 44 contractual staff nurse and 17 contractual ANM) turned out to have fake certificates.
It is feared that many nurses did not intentionally submit their documents to avoid scrutiny by the committee.
The other committee members were Dr R Doye, Dr Mika Ampo, ST Bapu, Joint Secretary Law and Judicial, Mari Angu, Chief Analyst (Administrative Reforms) and Techi Mepung, Secretary Trained Nurse Association of India, Arunachal Branch.
The first case of such fake nurses surfaced in 2015 when one nurse was detected with a fake certificate.
The principal of the institute reportedly filed a complaint against the said nurse on which the authority terminated the nurse. Subsequently, in 2016, 11 nurses were found with doubtful documents. After strict verification and cross-examination, the authority had to terminate their service amidst much hue and cry.
A highly placed source informed The Arunachal Times that after termination orders were issued, the department was clogged with notes from various public figures requesting reinstatement of the terminated fake nurses.
Meanwhile, sources informed that the Arunachal Pradesh Nursing Council had cancelled the registration of at least 109 nurses whose documents were either fake or forged. Among them were 75 GNMs, 34 ANMs and another five ANMs -on ground of dual registration.
Earlier, Arunachal trained nurses had to register under the Assam Nursing Council (ANC). However, by 2014, three years after the Arunachal Pradesh Nursing Act, 2011 was enacted by the state legislative assembly, the trained nurses started registration under Arunachal Pradesh Nursing Council.
