Creation of Public Health Cadre in Karnataka State, India

Background: Public Health is the science and art of promoting Health, preventing diseases and prolonging life through organized efforts of Society. The Government of Karnataka constituted a committee to revive the Public health system in state of Karnataka to provide recommendations for creation of Public health cadre. Objectives: To provide recommendations for creation of efficient public health system through creation of public health cadre. Methods: We reviewed several documents for studying the history and current structure of the department regarding creation of public health cadre/department. We conducted 35 brainstorming sessions involving in-depth discussions. We also conducted field visits and administered a pre-designed format for collecting the feedbacks from the officials of different levels. Results: The reviewed documents had a common finding of implementing public health cadre. Our analysis of current human resources in health department indicates that there is shortfall of qualified public health professionals in the department to opt and continue in public health cadre. Among the existing staff, 51% of the respondents wanted to update their skills through continued professional education. Our results from the study demonstrated to create a Public health directorate and public health cadre in Karnataka state. Conclusions: We recommend that there can be three levels in Public Health Cadre namely, Taluk level officers, District level officers and State level officers. We recommend time bound promotions of medical officers in accordance with published and updated common seniority list, which is the basis for all service matters.