The district has been witnessing a spurt in incidence of fever and other diseases generally found during monsoon season. Lack of adequate number of doctors to provide medicare is one of the main reasons behind the outbreak of diseases. Various social and political organisations have been demanding filling up of vacancies of doctors, but to no avail.
Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) has alleged that the government is neglecting public health sector. The organisation’s Ethics Committee chairman Sabu Sugathan, Alappuzha branch president K. Hariprasad and secretary Sangeetha Joseph said the situation had resulted in deterioration of the health services.
The government has been following the staff pattern of the Sixties, undermining the need to recruit more employees in tandem with the growth in population. About 70 vacancies of doctors have to be filled in the district. Thirty assistant surgeons are to be recruited in primary health centres in the district. “Non-availability of doctors at the hospital is severely hampering medical services at a time when widespread cases of viral fever and other diseases are being reported,” KGMOA said in a statement.
Despite the formation of a medical service corporation by the government aimed at ensuring quality and availability of medicine, scarcity of several medicines was affecting medicare services. The quality of medicines also had declined. The State budget allocation for medicines had been halved from Rs.400 crore to Rs.200 crore.
As per government’s norms, general hospitals require six major special units, but most general hospitals have just one physician. Several hospitals do not have casualty units at all. In Thuravur hospital, which was upgraded as a taluk headquarters hospital, the total number of posts of doctors is seven.
