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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 29 All Government medical college hospitals in the State will be made purely referral facilities by the end of this year, according to the Health Minister, Ms P.K. Sreemathy.

This invariably required the strengthening of the peripheral Government hospitals. The Government had, over the last three years, focussed on this requirement by filling up staff vacancies and installing additional facilities in such hospitals.

For instance, until three years ago, only 40 Government hospitals in the State were equipped to handle cases of childbirth. Today, as many as 140 hospitals are enabled to deal with such cases. This meant that only complicated cases needed to be referred to the department for women and children at medical colleges now, the Minister said.

The State Government proposes to announce the setting up of a medical university in the State with the objective of improving the academic standards of medical colleges and promoting medical research.

The decision to ban private practice by medical college doctors and raise their salaries substantially was part of the overall effort to turn medical colleges into academic institutions of repute.

Several expert reports, including one by a committee of the State Legislature and one by an expert committee constituted by the State Government, had pointed out that private practice by medical college doctors has been adversely affecting the delivery of service to ordinary patients.

There have also been widespread complaints that the quality of medical education had suffered since medical college teachers were found to spend more time for private practice.

Also, pecuniary benefits from private practice have been distracting a section of doctors from their duty to provide the best possible attention to poor patients at hospitals, the Minister said.

The revised pay scales, non-practicing allowances and patient-care allowances for medical college doctors would make them the best paid professionals under the Government service. The pay hikes announced would entail an annual additional expense of Rs 120 crore for the State Government.

More Stories on : Medical Institutions & Hospitals | Kerala

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