THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Faced with an escalating crisis of fatal snakebites, health experts are urging the state government to integrate private hospitals into a formal public-private partnership (PPP) to alleviate the mounting pressure on the public healthcare system.
Currently, private facilities handle approximately 60% of the state’s medical needs, yet the burden of snakebite management falls heavily on under-resourced government hospitals. Proponents of the PPP model argue that leveraging private infrastructure would bridge critical accessibility gaps, ensuring immediate intervention that prevents both mortality and the long-term clinical complications that arise when treatment is delayed.
The necessity for this shift is underscored by the current fiscal burden on the state treasury. As a state-specific disaster, snakebites carry a death compensation of Rs 10 lakh, with up to Rs 2 lakh provided for treatment depending on injury severity.
Experts argue that by facilitating timely access to care through a reimbursement model, the state can significantly offset these heavy financial outlays. The logic is simple: a proactive investment in early treatment reduces the likelihood of the outcomes that necessitate high-value disability and death payouts.
The urgency for this shift follows a series of fatalities that exposed critical gaps in the public system. While the government has worked to ensure anti-snake venom (ASV) availability, public hospitals remain hamstrung by a shortage of staff and life-saving equipment.
Dr Sunil P K, president of the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA), noted that with staffing levels unlikely to meet demand soon, private sector involvement is a viable way to manage complex cases. Currently, government doctors face immense pressure and the threat of negligence accusations, often leading to defensive referrals that waste precious time.
Private hospitals are ready to fill this gap, particularly in providing ventilators and intensive care for victims suffering from respiratory distress or cardiac arrest. Dr E K Ramachandran, state treasurer of the Kerala Private Hospital Association (KPHA) highlighted that while a single vial of ASV costs approximately Rs 700, the total cost of managing complications is often beyond the reach of the poor. A government-backed reimbursement model would ensure these victims receive high-level care without delay.
However, clinical experts emphasise that no model can succeed without strengthening “peripheral” care. Dr Purushothaman Kuzhikkathukandiyil, professor of paediatrics and an expert in snakebite management at MES Medical College, Malappuram, argues that timely access is the absolute decider of survival.
He maintains that while complications can eventually be referred to higher centres, the initial stabilisation must happen at the closest possible facility -- public or private.
By empowering the periphery to handle the first two hours of envenomation, the state can prevent the deformities and deaths that currently drive its compensation payouts.