Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

AIIMS status: stress on vision document for medical college

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: Much needs to be done as far as research, teaching facilities and patient care are concerned before Thiruvananthapuram Medical College can hope to attain the level of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), senior doctors said at an open forum organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) here on Tuesday, on the issue of AIIMS status for the medical college.

Instead of protesting loudly about the medical college being denied the AIIMS status, one should wonder why it lost its case, cardiologist and former Professor of the medical college G. Vijayararaghavan said.

Attaining the level of AIIMS will mean making the medical college a deemed university and a 100 per cent referral centre. Was the medical college pushing for this or was it just looking for funds for infrastructure development, he wondered.

"Do we have a master plan for achieving the level of research and teaching that AIIMS has? Or the hospital infrastructure, administration system and cleanliness? Rather than raise a hue and cry, we should try to prepare a vision document for the medical college and set realistic goals of what can be achieved within a time-frame," Dr. Vijayaraghavan said.

Doctors should think why even the poor have been shunning Government hospitals in favour of private hospitals and focus attention on the real issues in the health sector, mediaperson B.R.P. Bhaskar said. He said trade unionism was the bane of the medical college hospital and the authorities were hardly able to control them.

George Mercier, MLA, who participated in the discussion, said the Government should set apart funds for improving the infrastructure in other Government hospitals in the periphery so that only cases that require to be treated at the medical college hospital reach there.

The referral system should be implemented before approaching the Centre to secure the AIIMS status, he added.

Suggestions put forth by the Postgraduates' Association include implementation of the residency system, direct appointment of qualified persons to senior posts, improving research facilities and instituting a medical audit system for assessing any lapses in treatment.

The others who spoke at the discussion, including Pannian Ravindran, MP; Surendran Pillai and V. Sivankutty, MLAs; and V.S. Sivakumar, said all political parties should join hands to take up the issue of the medical college with the Centre.

The open forum was inaugurated by Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran.

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