T’puram: Health minister K Muraleedharan will visit Parippally medical college on July 6 to assess the institution’s present condition. The minister’s visit comes in response to the repeated demand from Kollam MP N K Premachandran that the state govt should directly examine the issues affecting the medical college and take urgent steps to improve its functioning.Premachandran alleged that the previous govt had neglected the institution over the past decade. He claimed that the hospital was handed over by ESI Corporation with adequate infrastructure and equipment, but successive govts failed to utilize these facilities effectively and instead allowed the institution to gradually decline from medical college standards.Premachandran further alleged that the govt has neither created sufficient posts nor filled existing vacancies for doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel. He said the hospital, located along the national highway, still lacks adequate facilities for emergency surgeries required for accident victims. He also accused the govt of failing to establish super-specialty departments, while existing specialty units are functioning inadequately because of shortages of staff and equipment.Premachandran said that the inability of the institution to function as a full-fledged medical college has resulted in critically ill patients being referred to other hospitals for treatment. He expressed hope that the minister’s visit would lead to concrete measures to improve infrastructure, strengthen services and ensure that the hospital functions at the standard expected of a medical college.
