24 X 7 specialty services: Keralam government-KGMOA to hold discussions

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The Keralam government has, in a bid to smoothen ruffled feathers, invited the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) over for a discussion on how best to implement its proposal to make primary medical specialty care services available round-the-clock in at least one district-level hospital in all districts across the State

The discussion, which will take place on Sunday, will be chaired by the Health Minister K. Muraleedharan.

The government’s sudden announcement that it intended to offer specialty care services round the clock in selected district hospitals across the State had been a total surprise for the KGMOA, which was peeved that they were never taken into confidence before the decision was announced.

The KGMOA stated that offering 24 x 7 services at a time when the Health department did not even have adequate human resources to sustain the services it was currently providing was impractical. It argued that round-the-clock service provision through “working arrangement” or redeployment of doctors cannot be a sustained affair if the government did not create new posts — there were 300 vacancies of specialists — and filled at least part of the existing vacancies of doctors in service.

The government, however, countered the KGMOA’s arguments by stating that it had had a hard look at the data and that there was a total mismatch of patient load, services and human resources in many family health centres (FHCs) and community health centres (CHC)/ Block CHCs. It said that with some rationalisation in deployment, it was possible to go ahead with its plan without immediate post creation

It has already announced that it will pilot the 24 x 7 specialty care services at Punalur district hospital in Kollam from September 1. The Kollam District Medical Officer has already issued orders redeploying doctors with PG qualifications from the periphery institutions to Punalur and re-directing doctors from less crowded institutions to replace those in periphery.

Appreciating the government’s invitation for talks, State president of KGMOA P.K. Sunil said that the association was not against the government’s decision to offer better services to the public but that it wanted the authorities to address the concerns of doctors too.

“Till now, we have not had any clarity on how the government intended to take this initiative forward. We are happy that an opportunity is being created to discuss and thrash out all contentious matters,” Dr. Sunil said.

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