Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Curb on purchases may hit facilities in MCH

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 13. The day-to-day running of the Medical College Hospital (MCH) here is likely to be affected by a decision taken at a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Hospital Development Society (HDS) to bar the HDS secretary from taking any financial decisions without the concurrence of the committee.

The Hospital Superintendent, Viswanathan, who is also the secretary of the HDS, told The Hindu that the decision took away his powers to make the purchase of all hospital supplies necessary for the daily running of the MCH and that this could create a lot of hitches in the physical functioning of the hospital.

The executive committee meeting had been called by the Health Minister on March 10 at his chamber. The meeting was chaired by the vice-chairperson of HDS, V.N. Rema, the Principal, Medical College, in the absence of the District Collector. The District Medical Officer, E.K. Madhavan, Dr. Viswanathan and Mohankumar, MLA were present at the meeting.

"As the person in charge of the administration of the hospital, I used to place orders for hospital supplies according to the daily requirement. Purchases less than Rs.10,000, we could buy directly. Equipment such as CT Scanner, X-ray and ECG machines require frequent supply of film and paper. The decision removing the financial powers vested with the HDS secretary is going to cost us dear," Dr. Viswanathan said.

He said that the MCH had already run out of X-ray film and that the camera of CT scanner needed to be replaced. As the executive committee needed to approve all financial decisions, the administration would have to wait for the next monthly meeting of the committee to get fresh supplies.

In the present situation, a lot of poor patients as well as accident victims who were brought to the Casualty wing, for whom these facilities were offered free of cost, would have to depend on private diagnostic centres.

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