Thaindian News

Panaji, July 19 (IANS) The Goa health department’s nodal officer for swine flu Sunday alleged that the state health authorities were not cooperating with him and not doing enough for quarantined patients. He says he would like to step down from the post.
Rajendra Tamba, the nodal officer who has been conducting regular media briefings ever since the first swine flu patient was identified in the state in June, said he had already written a letter to the state government, asking to be relieved.

“There is absolutely no cooperation from the health department. Now the three swine flu patients have to face a lot of inconveniences because of this slack attitude,” Tamba told IANS.

“I had asked for Rs.10 lakh (Rs.1 million) from the government for the swine flu programme a month ago. But not a single penny has been paid. When I asked the department to requisition a taxi to ferry a swine flu suspect’s throat samples to the laboratory (Pune), the department insisted that we use public bus transport,” Tamba said.

“Now the swine flu patients who have been quarantined are complaining about lack of facilities at the quarantine facility in Chicalim. I don’t blame them because the department, despite repeated requests from me, is not doing anything about it. And this criticism is affecting the image of my office as nodal officer,” he said.

Three swine flu patients are quarantined in Goa over the last one month.

The director of the state health services was unavailable for comment.