Are Kerala government medical colleges turning into disaster zones after Kottayam building collapse?

Once upon a time, Kerala’s government-run medical services were rated among the best that any state in India could offer. With comparisons being made with even some of the subsidized public health services provided by European states.

Those were the days…

It just doesn’t look like that now. In fact, Kerala’s government medical colleges are having a terrible few days.

First, there was the head of urology at Thiruvananthapuram – Dr. Haris Chirakkil - coming out in public to highlight the sorry state of affairs at the institution, where shortages of equipment supplies are an everyday concern. And where patients are being told to pay and bring the needed stuff if their surgeries are to proceed as per the due dates.

This at an institution that’s been recognized through the decades as being among the premier healthcare facilities in the country. And whose past students have been - or continue to be – among the most respected medical professionals that the country has produced. With Dr. Haris Chirakkil being among them – now, he will spend the coming days thinking whether he has committed a professional hara-kiri…

Kerala’s misfortunes at its medical colleges didn’t end with Dr. Haris’ lament about the pathetic state of affairs at his institution.

At the Kottayam Medical College, part of a building attached to the orthopedics department collapsed – and taking a life - with it. Even when the authorities’ initial reaction was to rush out saying that no one’s been hurt – if only that were true…

Now, these aren’t two isolated incidents that happened in the space of a few days.

It’s a direct consequence of not putting in the financial resources or even the planning to ensure that Kerala’s populace get the treatment they should. Especially those who can’t afford to head for the nearest privately owned hospital where the cost of care can get quite scary. (Matters turn more tragic or farcical – depending on how you see it – when a top official at one of the medical colleges says it’s standard practice to ask patients to bring their surgical stuff for a procedure…)

Malayalees joke that building new hospitals at every available spot is one of Kerala’s most likely businesses to succeed. (The other one is to open a fast-food joint…)  

With an aging population, Kerala needs its new hospitals and specialty care centers. Which these days are being opened only by private sector enterprises.

Which makes the sheer neglect of Kerala’s premier government-managed medical colleges incomprehensible to just about everyone. Sure, the government is confronting a situation where it just doesn’t have the financial resources. But can this even be an excuse to starve its healthcare system of even day-to-day needs? Or create conditions that leads a building in a hospital complex to collapse…

Malayalees surely need better access to treatment at government facilities – one they had expected as part of their rights over the years. Now, for many of them, their only hope is to get that sort of care at private hospitals – provided they can pay.

If Kerala’s government is thinking of pushing more activity to the private sector, they are succeeding…