Kerala   

ESIC willing to take over one more hospital

KOCHI: The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is willing to take over the 125-bed ESI Hospital at Udyogamandal here if the State government is ready to hand it over.

ESIC director-general P.C. Chaturvedi told a visiting parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour on Wednesday that the corporation was ready to take over the hospital, currently run by the State government, and turn it into a model one. Employees’ organisations had petitioned the committee, headed by Sudhakar Reddy, to ask the ESIC to directly run the hospital, as it was in bad shape now. The thousands of workers in the Udyogamandal industrial area were not getting quality medical treatment as the hospital was short of doctors, drugs, staff and medical facilities.

Mr. Chaturvedi told the committee that his officials had already held talks with the State government about the proposal.

The 14-member MPs’ team, which visited the hospital, held talks with representatives of employers and employees as well as with ESIC officials such as Mr. Chaturvedi and the Kerala regional director, Jose Cherian.

The ESIC currently has 13 hospitals in Kerala, but only one, at Ashramam in Kollam district, is directly run by it. The others are administered by the State government, but the expenses are shared by the ESIC. In 2002, the ESIC had decided to fully take over one ESI hospital in each State and the Ashramam hospital was taken over in 2003. Mr. Cherian told The Hindu that shortage of doctors was a hurdle in improving the service at ESI hospitals. Doctors usually preferred to either join the government service or work at private hospitals. To tide over the crisis, the ESIC was planning to set up a medical college at Paripally in Kollam district, he said.

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