New Government Medical College Hospital in Wayanad crying for attention

Inadequate infrastructure and limited medical staff among problems

The newly set up Government Medical College Hospital in Wayanad is yet to be equipped with enough infrastructure. There is only limited medical staff, and some of them are not getting their salaries on time as well.

Adding to this is the lack of safety of the existing building. Sources said soil erosion was posing a severe threat and heavy rain could damage the whole structure.

The State Government converted the Government District Hospital at Mananthavady into a medical college hospital in February. Posting orders for the staff were issued in September. A three-storey building of the nursing college was given away for academic purpose.

Sources, however, said the offices were yet to get proper infrastructure, including desktop computers. Some staff were yet to be given identity cards. Though there are six posts of professors, only two or three professors are working. Twenty-one associate professor posts have been sanctioned but there are none in those posts. Though there are 28 posts of assistant professors, only five have been posted. Of them, two are working elsewhere as per some official arrangement. Only eight of the 27 posts of senior resident doctors have been filled.

The sources said because of the lack of facilities, the hospital was not even taking baby steps to become a full-fledged medical college hospital. The surgery department is left with only the head of the department and three senior resident doctors. There are no anaesthetists in the operation theatre now though the district hospital has staff in that category.

There is inordinate delay in the release of staff salaries and some others have not got it too. According to sources, the staff bills of permanent staff have now been cleared by the Finance Department, but those of contract staff such as resident doctors are still pending. Some of the staff, who wished not to be quoted, claimed that medical personnel posted in Wayanad were reluctant to work there because of the lack of facilities.

Officials, however, claimed that most of the issues had been conveyed to the Health Minister at a recent meeting. Instructions had been issued to resolve them one by one. The process to have a permanent building for the medical college hospital had also begun, they added.