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Upgrade Alappuzha Medical College: UDF

Staff Reporter

MLA demands Sreemathy's resignation for infant deaths

ALAPPUZHA: The United Democratic Front district committee organised a march to the District Medical Office here on Tuesday demanding the immediate upgrading of the Alappuzha Medical College, which was partially shifted to the TD Medical College campus at Vandanam, into a

full-fledged District Hospital.

UDF workers, led by K.C. Venugopal, MLA, also demanded that Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy resign from her post taking moral responsibility for the recent infant deaths at the Sree Avittom Tirunal (SAT) Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.

The agitators, who were prevented by the police from entering the DMO premises, later staged a dharna there and said the protest would be intensified if the Government did not heed to their demands.

Addressing the dharna, Mr. Venugopal said the Government had promised that the Alappuzha Medical College premises in the town would be converted into a District Hospital with all modern healthcare facilities by March 31 this year. However, the situation now was that both the hospitals, one in the town and the other at Vandanam, were suffering from lack of proper facilities even for basic treatment.

With the number of road accidents on an unprecedented high in the district, particularly on the NH-47 stretch passing through the Alappuzha town, the absence of emergency care facilities, shortage of staff and drugs were leading to several deaths caused by want of proper and timely treatment, he said.

With no private hospitals in Alappuzha, the entire public here and from surrounding areas depended on the Medical College for affordable treatment. However, the indifference of the State Government in ensuring proper facilities was causing untold misery to the public, the MLA said.

District Congress Committee president A.A. Shukoor said several buildings in the town premise of the Medical College, which were lying empty after the departments in them were shifted to Vandanam, were falling apart.

Adequate staff, latest healthcare equipment and medicines should be supplied at the earliest to the hospitals, he demanded.

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