The Cabinet has decided to convene a high-level meeting of Ministers, top brass of the Health Department, and heads of the five government medical colleges in the State on September 20 to discuss ways to lift the quality of trauma and critical care in the medical college hospitals.
Briefing reporters after a weekly Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the meeting was being convened in the light of the death of a migrant worker from Orissa, who was injured in a road accident, at the Kottayam medical college hospital recently.
The Director of Medical Education (DME), who had been asked to inquire into the incident, had recommended a detailed inquiry to unravel the actual causes that led to the death of the migrant worker and suggested the names of three senior doctors from the Thiruvananthapuram medical college as members of the panel of inquiry. The doctors are Usha Kumari, Head, Anaesthesia; P. Anil Kumar, Professor, Neurosurgery; and Mohan Das, Head, Surgery. The Cabinet had considered the DME's report and decided to wait for the report of the three-member panel before contemplating action relating to the death of the migrant worker, Mr. Chandy said.
Responding to the question whether the DME had identified doctors' negligence as the cause for the incident, the Chief Minister said this was something that would be revealed by the detailed inquiry. He, however, conceded that there was need for greater vigilance on the part of doctors and responsibility on the part of the government to provide them with sufficient infrastructure facilities.
Mr. Chandy said the September 20 meeting was to address the larger question of streamlining trauma and critical care in the medical college hospitals. The meeting would be attended by the Ministers of Health, Finance, Labour, and Forests, the Health Secretary, the DME, the Director of Health Services (DHS), and principals and superintendents of all the five government medical colleges.
