Only EKM district hospital has resources
Picture used for representational purpose. (Photo: DC/File)
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With just one of the 18 district hospitals in the State enjoying specialist and infrastructure facilities for treating cancer, the Chief Minister’s grandiose Independence Day announcement on introducing cancer cure facility in all hospitals looks highly impractical, say doctors.
According to Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) which represents doctors in the health services department, only the Ernakulam district hospital has the equipment and manpower for radiotherapy. Most other hospitals have no specialist or equipment worth the name for providing cancer care.
They said radiotherapy was the main treatment modality for most solid tumours and a majority of patients needed radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy. But most hospitals don't have Cobalt or linear accelerator and brachytherapy machines.
Even nuclear medicine which is crucial in treating cancers of the thyroid and goitre has to be developed in these hospitals. A separate edical oncology department fully equipped with the latest treatment modalities and facilities for proper diagnosis of cancers through pathology, radio diagnosis and imaging and nuclear medicines needs to be put in place. “It is a huge task. I don't know how is the Government going to deliver its promise,'' said a doctor.
Moreover, the Government has been sitting on doctors’ demand for creating separate specialties for radio diagnosis and radiotherapy in all hospitals, for the past three years. “The Government is on a spree to upgrade taluk hospitals into district and district hospitals into general hospitals. Barring the change in boards, nothing else is happening,’’ said E. T.Mohanan, sate president of KGMOA.
The shortage of nearly 900 doctors the department has been facing, has seriously affected the day-to-day patient care activities in the 1,200-odd hospitals under the Health Department. The department is in urgent need of assistant surgeons, specialists and specialists (admn) cadre. The existing doctor strength is based on the staff pattern which was finalised in 1966.
Though 400 posts were created between 1966 and the present, considering the work load and increase in the number of patients over the years, the department requirement has gone up to at least 8,000 doctors. However, the present strength is only close to 4,000.
( Source : dc )
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