KASARAGOD: Keeping in line with the government's continued neglect of the health care sector in Kasaragod, the Director of Health Service reappointed 23 doctors posted in the district to other districts of the state.
The order comes at a time when the district is battling a severe shortage of doctors against the backdrop of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. In August, the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) advised 39 candidates to join 25 hospitals in Kasaragod. Subsequently, on September 8, the Director of Health Service (DHS) issued the appointment orders to the recruits. They were posted as assistant surgeons and casualty medical officers in the District Hospital, the General Hospital, three taluk hospitals, and 22 other primary health centres, community health centres, and family health centres.
However, three days later, on September 11, the DHS revised the order and reappointed 23 of the 39 doctors to other districts such as Wayanad, Palakkad, Kannur, and Idukki. The DHS retained 16 doctors for Kasaragod.
"It is rare for the DHS to revise its appointment orders and redeploy recruits to other districts," said a senior health official. Of the 16 doctors, three doctors joined duty on Tuesday, he said. "But that does not matter. Only half of the doctors posted to Kasaragod report for work," he said.
To be sure, the order issued on September 11 revised the joining time to 14 days from seven days, and the 14 days end on Thursday. Kasaragod has a shortage of 67 doctors in its health care centres, taluk hospitals, District Hospital, and General Hospital.
"But COVID has drastically changed the requirement. Now we need at least 200 doctors, including specialists, to attend to COVID patients alone," the senior health official said. This is the second time in September that the DHS is taking away doctors posted in Kasaragod. On September 2, the department issued an order allowing 22 specialist doctors (senior residents) posted at the COVID Hospital -- run from the Kasaragod Medical College building -- to work from Kozhikode Medical College. The specialist doctors including general physicians, a chest specialist, anaesthetists, and paediatricians, whose services were needed in the district.
In another case of disregard for Kasaragod, the government is planning to run the 551-bed Tata hospital as a COVID First-Line Treatment Centre (CFLTC) and not as a hospital as initially envisioned. Tata Group built the hospital in five months on the request of the state government in Kasaragod. But the government rejected two proposals to set up hospitals there and has accepted a proposal for CFLTC. Kasaragod already has 10 CFLTCs and 10 more are ready but are not operationalised because of a shortage of doctors. "CFLTCs are just observation centres. Kasaragod needs a proper hospital to attend to critical patients," said a doctor.
Youth Congress activists throw stones at minister's camp office
KANHANGAD: The Youth Congress's protest march to the camp office of the minister for revenue and housing E Chandrasekharan turned violent in Kanhangad on Tuesday. Youth Congress activists threw stones at the office breaking a windowpane and a table glass of next door Kanhangad Agriculture Improvement Cooperative Society.
The CPI's Kanhangad mandalam secretary C K Baburaj has filed a complaint with Hosdurg police. The Youth Congress took out the march to Chandrasekharan's camp office to protest against the government's alleged neglect of the health care sector of the district. The youth wing of the Congress accused the minister of being indifferent to the needs of the district.
The Youth Congress district president BP Pradeep Kumar said CPI leaders Baburaj, Ranjith, and Pratheesh threw sticks at the protestors and verbally abused them. The Youth Congress activists allegedly retaliated by throwing stones at the office on the first floor of the building. The CPI's party office, the cooperative society's office, and the minister's camp office are on the first floor of the building. Pradeep Kumar said the Youth Congress activists were leading a peaceful protest but the CPI leaders provoked them.
"The attack on us was a miserable attempt to hide the minister's ineptness," he said. He said the government allowed 22 of the 24 specialist doctors posted at the COVID Hospital at Ukkinadka to work from Kozhikode medical college. "This at a time when Kasaragod is facing a shortage of 200 doctors," he said. At the same time, the government has no plan to start the 551-bed hospital built by Tata at Thekkil. If the government went ahead with its plan to convert the District Hospital or General Hospital to a COVID Hospital, it would put the poor patients to hardship.
"The situation has come to this because of the neglect of E Chandrasekharan, who is touted as the no. 2 in the Cabinet," said Pradeep Kumar. The latest in the series of neglect is the Director of Health Service's decision to cut short the list of 39 doctors posted in Kasaragod to 16. "We took out the protest to wake up the minister from our district. But his party resorted to violence," he said. The protest was inaugurated by Congress district president Hakkim Kunnil.