Kerala: GMC Kozhikode to hire more doctors

Kerala: GMC Kozhikode will soon hire more doctors and other staff members. Health Minister K.K. Shailaja in her statement has implied that the state government will be taking adequate steps to address the situation of shortage of doctors and staff members, arising primarily because the GMC has been following the staff pattern fixed in 1961.

Also, arrangements have been made for doctors to provide mandatory service in the government sector. After the doctors complete their PG studies in Kerala, they are required to compulsory serve in the government sectors of 3 years.

The minister told to the media that there was a plan to fortify district hospitals across the State with specialties, and thus, control the flow of patients to medical colleges.

In addition, medical colleges will be converted to places to attend to only referral patients. The plan is also to make these medical colleges as centres of learning and research. 5 GMCs in Kerala will also uphold a status of centres of excellence, she further implied.

The health minister was present at a recent meeting of department heads and union leaders at the medical college. The meeting also involved representations from unions of doctors, paramedics and office staff,. Besides, Hospital Development Society members and nurses were a part of the meeting.

Those who were present during the meeting implied that it seemed a tough task to complete temporary recruitments for doctors. This they reasoned is because of doctors drawing a good pay in private hospitals.

In the interim, MD team reported earlier the district is facing a threat of spread of diphtheria.

As a precautionary step, the Medical Team and staff of all government hospitals in the district will be administered tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, as a case of a 37 year old woman doctor hailing from Olavanna, has been detected with the disease on July 5. The district level rapid response task force chaired by Kozhikode Medical College Principal, Dr. V.P. Sasidharan has met and decided to conduct institutional level drives to administer the vaccine. The drive is to be completed by the end of this week.

Vaccination drives and preventive measures would also be undertaken in the neighbouring areas and regions where these cases have been reported. The vaccination efforts at Kozhikode Medical College are already underway. Approximately 3,000 staff of the, Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, Institute of Maternal and Child Health, Institute of Chest Diseases and Super Speciality Block will be administered the Td vaccine as they are in regular contact with the patient community.