Keralam’s 24×7 specialty care rollout falters amid political pushback

The government’s attempts to provide 24×7 specialty care services in general and district hospitals is faltering, with the Health department barely able to run round-the-clock services in Punalur taluk hospital, where the initiative was piloted, despite concerns raised by stakeholders about the acute shortage of human resources in Health Services.

Health officials said that the idea had been to redeploy doctors with PG qualification, working in the periphery hospitals as assistant surgeons, at Punalur. However, this proposal has reportedly been met with stiff resistance from the local political leadership as well as the people.

Many PG doctors who had been pulled from institutions in Yeroor, Neendakara, Thevalakkara, Mayyanad, Kundara, Pathanapuram, Nedungolam, could not be retained at Punalur because of political interventions at the local level, who demanded their return.