THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even though the Government shelved the move to start medical college at general hospital this year, going by the ground situation it is unlikely that the institution would be up and running even in 2017-18 or the year after. Sources said it would be difficult to alter the administrative and academic block set up at the hospital at a cost of Rs 30 crore should the government decide to use it for hospital purpose alone. The existing building is not suitable for operation theatres, cath labs or hospital related requirements.
The building has been designed to have dissection halls for anatomy department, lecture halls with step like formation and auditoriums. “You cannot convert these lecture halls into operation theatres. Similarly the administrative block too cannot be converted into hospital. I have no idea how are they going to transform these buildings for hospital purpose should the government shelve the medical college project entirely,” said a senior doctor.
The government had in June decided not to go ahead with the decision of its predecessors to start MBBS courses at the newly set up medical college hospital at the general hospital premises. "Even for next year, the government has not yet applied for MCI nod. This clearly means that they are not quite keen to go ahead with the project,” said an official. The decision to shelve the project this year was taken by the government in view of the lack of facilities including infrastructure facilities, laboratories, staff, class rooms and proper hostels.
But the construction work at the general hospital medical college is still going at a slow pace though officials claim that the main building comprising administrative and academic blocks would be completed within four months. The opposition UDF had favoured medical college at the general hospital. Former health minister V. S. Sivakumar claimed that the college had an academic block of 138000 sq ft, Ops, IPs, registration facilities, minor operation theatre, casualty, lease based hostel facility, library besides 134 posts including that of 109 doctors. It was based on these facilities and staff strength that the UDF government had decided to give undertaking to start admissions for 100 MBBS seats this year.
Doctors not for medical college
The doctors of the health service department are opposed to the proposal of converting the general hospital into medical college. When the LDF government decided to shelve the project for this year, Kerala Government Medical Offices Association (KGMOA) had welcomed the decision. The health services doctors say both institutions were more than 100 years old and should be retained under the health department.
Besides, the Thycaud hospital was among the few government hospitals to have received the NABH accreditation. According to them, the three tier health system in the state was functioning under primary health centres, taluk-district-general hospitals and government medical colleges. They fear that converting general hospitals into medical colleges would upset the entire health sector.
The KGMOA has pointed out that there was not even a single super speciality hospital under the state health services department at the moment. By introducing such facilities in the district and general hospitals, the department would be able to make super speciality services to people outside medical college hospitals. They want the new building to be utilised for this purpose.
