Govt plans to deploy team of psychiatrists in affected areas

The health and family welfare ministry is dispatching a team of 75 psychiatrists to the Tsunami-hit regions of the country today. Twenty of them will be stationed at Port Blair. The others are being sent to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry.

The team of psychiatrists has been put together from among experts at the National Institute of Mental Health And Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chan-digarh, and Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi.

Sources also said Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had asked for final-year psychiatry students from these institutes to be included in the team so that they could gain hands-on experience.

"Under stress, things flare up. We are not taking any chances. We would like to err on the side of excess," a top official in the ministry said.

About 50 cleaners of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had been sent to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and about 50 more were required in the region for sanitation and to bring about a semblance of normalcy for survivors, he added.

But it is not only the survivors who are in need of counselling services. It was given to understand that five orthopedic surgeons out of a squad of 50 doctors in Port Blair have left the team after working there for about a week.

Describing them as super-specialty doctors, the ministry said that their exit would not affect the provision of basic medical aid. Ministry officials also said that 35 more doctors were being sent to Port Blair today.

According to ministry officials, the relief camps in Andaman and Nicobar were facing problems of overcrowding and shortage of vaccination drugs. "We will be focusing on psychiatric help for women and children in the camps," they said.

Officials also said "there was nothing to worry about" epidemics and diseases at the moment. There was, however, a shortage of pathology services in the area, and the ministry is making arrangements for laboratory technicians to be sent to Port Blair.

A top official source also said that there was demand from those managing the relief operations from Delhi to be in constant dialogue with representatives from the concerned sates.

"The resident commissioners of the states should be asked to be a part of the meetings held in Delhi so that they put forth the needs of their states strongly," a source said.

Meanwhile, about Rs 80 lakh worth of emergency medical stores have been supplied to Pondicherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This included drugs worth Rs 60 lakh, which have been dispatched to the island authorities.