Kerala - Kozhikode   

Government to start more nursing colleges: Minister

Staff Reporter

Panel to inspect facilities in colleges, nursing schools

SETTING THE TONE: Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy inaugurating a State conference of the Qualified Private Medical Practitioners and Hospitals Association in Kozhikode on Saturday.

KOZHIKODE : Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy has said the Government will constitute a team to inspect the facilities in 80 nursing colleges and 200-odd nursing schools in the State.

The Minister was inaugurating a scientific session of the 33rd annual State conference of Qualified Private Medical Practitioners and Hospitals Association (QPMPA) here on Saturday. The team would inspect whether there were enough facilities in place, including hospitals with specified beds, hostels for students and sufficient number of faculty for these colleges. The Minister said that rise in the number of institutions did not ensure a rise in quality (of education).

Reimbursement

To a demand on introducing medical reimbursement for persons belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families for treatment in private hospitals, Ms. Sreemathy said that reimbursement in all cases would not be practical. The Government was allowing such medical reimbursements in a few cases where the case was referred to another private hospital for want of facilities and needed emergency care.

She said the Government would hold discussions with the association on their problems when the Assembly holds its session in June. She said the fact that the Government was able to set up only five medical colleges in the Government sector for the last 50 years should be seen as a defect. Also, only three nursing colleges were started in the Government sector for the last 26 years. Karnataka boasts 144 nursing colleges. But there were 70 to 80 nursing colleges in the private sector in the State.

Ms. Sreemathy said she was very particular that the Government set up new nursing colleges offering B.Sc. nursing courses attached to Government medical colleges. She said the Government would start two nursing colleges attached to the Alappuzha and Thrissur medical colleges with a total intake of 120 students.

The fee structure in Government nursing colleges and private ones could not be compared. While Government nursing colleges charged Rs. 9,000 per annum, the private colleges charged anywhere between Rs. 81,000 and Rs. 3 lakh yearly.

Fee revision

She said she was of the opinion that the fees in nursing colleges and medical colleges in the Government sector should be revised.

She said poor patients were unable to get proper medical care from the Government hospitals. The Government hospitals also lacked proper equipment, which showed the inability to tap modern advances in technology. There were not even facilities for taking X-ray in some of the taluk hospitals. She said the Government would increase the facilities in Government hospitals so as to cater to the needs of the BPL category.

K. Radhakrishna Pillai, State president, QPMPA, presided. K. Moidu, district president, QPMPA, M.C. Cyriac, State secretary, K. Madhavan Kutty, organising committee chairman, C.M. Aboobacker, co-chairman, organising committee, P. Sankaran, former Minister A.K. Abdul Khader, president of Kozhikode branch of Indian Medical Association, and C.P. Musthafa, secretary, QPMPA, also spoke.

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