KASARGOD: On a day when around 5000 residents of the district joined the movement demanding an AIIMS in Kasaragod, The New Indian Express visited the state government's medical college at Ukkinadka to take stock of the progress of work there.
Nearly three months after minister for health Veena George said the hospital building will be partially ready in May, the government has not even called for tenders for the electrification of the block, said doctors.
The project is with Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and it should have called for bids for the electrification. "But KIIFB's engineers have not yet come to the hospital for site inspection. How can it float tender? Things are static here," said a doctor.
Once the tender is floated, it will take another three months to zero in on a contractor, and the electrification work will take a further six months at least. After that, the rest of the civil work will have to be completed. "You can write off this year," he said.
Till the hospital building is ready, the medical college will be offering only outpatient (OP) consultation service from the Academic Block. "There is nothing much we can do. We cannot scale up our services in this block which is meant to be classrooms, labs and auditorium," he said.
On November 18, Veena George reviewed the progress of the work and told reporters in Kanhangad she effected a "change in plan" in the construction and the ground floor of the hospital building will be ready to occupy in six months, that is May. Till then the medical college would be offering outpatient (OP) consultation, she too had said.
There are five specialist doctors offering consultation in medicine, neurology, nephrology, rheumatology, paediatric, psychiatry and pulmonology. But the specialist doctors have no tools or gadgets to make any advanced intervention.
Another five junior doctors take care of the local OP.
Despite the specialist doctors on the rolls, the response from the public has been lukewarm.
Except for Saturdays, all other days have four to six doctors on call. Yet, the average footfall in the hospital is 50 to 60 patients, said a staff.
On January 3, on the day the OP service was started, 28 patients came to the hospital.
On February 1, the hospital got 127 patients, the highest till date.
On February 4 (Friday) and 5 (Saturday), 58 and 37 patients came to the hospital.
To put these numbers in perspective, The New Indian Express contacted Enmakaje panchayat's Family Health Centre (FHC) at Perla, which is 3km from the medical college.
The FHC, despite its upgrade in name, has only one junior doctor, who attends to 80 to 100 patients every day.
The Community Health Centre at Badiadka gets around 200 patients every day and during fever season up to 750 patients visit the hospital, said a nurse.
A staff at the medical college said only patients with mild symptoms and those with their own vehicles came to the OP clinic. "One, there are no frequent buses and two, there are no facilities here for seriously ill patients," she said.
The staffer said many patients come asking for ENT and eye specialists.
Kalandar Shah, a native of Shenni in Enmakaje panchayat, was at the hospital asking for a dermatologist. He was directed to a general physician. "We want the government to set up the medical college hospital as soon as possible and not sit on the project," he said.
Shah said he has to take three buses to reach General Hospital in Kasaragod, where there are specialist doctors. "But I can reach medical college in 20 minutes. It will be a big favour to the people of Badiadka and Enmakaje panchayat if the government starts the hospital," he said.
Kasaragod district does not have a tertiary hospital and the medical college hospital at Ukkinadka has been in the making since November 30, 2013, when Oommen Chandy laid the foundation stone.
"We have to run the hospital with an inpatient facility for two years before the National Medical Commission can give permission to admit MBBS students," said a doctor.