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MCH scan
Technological advances notwithstanding; the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital is ill-equipped to deal with the increasing number of cases (especially of poor patients).
With no less a person than the State Health Minister opting for treatment at a private hospital following an accident, there remains little doubt about the `excellent' facilities available at the MCH. The number of ministers going on `tour-cum-treatment' visits to foreign countries is increasing by the day. However, for a change, one of the ex-ministers underwent treatment for his illness at the Thiruvananthapuram MCH.
Says Nisamuddin, an employee with a company in Dubai, "My grandfather has been admitted here. I hope it's nothing serious. I'm working in Dubai and the medical expenses being incurred in this hospital are not much of a burden. But the cost of various scans have been hiked, I would have taken my grandfather to a private hospital but the medical bills there will more or less empty my pocket."
Shanta, a daily wage labourer residing in Kollam, has come to the MCH. Since she cannot afford to admit her husband to a private hospital, she has brought him here. Says Shanta, "My husband has been under treatment for liver and kidney disease for some time now. Tests are being conducted to diagnose the disease; I've been given concession for the treatment cost by the hospital authorities. The last time my husband fell ill, he had to be hospitalised for over a week, here. I hardly had any money with me, and doctors here helped me tide over the expenses. "
Reji Sebastian, whose friend's father aged 61 has been admitted at the MCH says, " The cost of treatment here is less, that is the reason people like us come here. When you're facing financial constraints and have to hospitalise a member of your family, a private hospital is not the choice," he says.
Thankamma, has come a long way, from Pandalam, to treat her son. "What do you want me to say? Why does anyone need to know what my son is suffering from? It is too late to save him; I don't want to talk to any one. Someone who is poor cannot aspire to live long," she says.
The MCH is over-burdened with patients, is often short- staffed and their shoe- string budgets do not permit them to buy new equipment or repair existing ones.
S.S.
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