Kerala Govt mulls shutting down Tata Trust COVID hospital in Kasaragod

Kasaragod: Following the decline in COVID-19 cases, Tata Trust Government Covid Hospital is lying idle with no patients visiting the hospital. Therefore, the health department is mulling shutting down the facility and constructing a speciality hospital here instead. 

Such a decision came after the health department became clueless about how to put the facility to use for patient services and the expenses to maintain the facility were mounting.

To treat and shelter COVID-infected patients, the hospital was built during the COVID-19 outbreak at Chattanchal in Kasaragod. It treated almost 4,100 patients with the available facilities. However, as soon as the COVID cases started to drop, patients from the nearby neighborhood stopped coming to the hospital which was once overloaded with patients.

Earlier, nearly 197 staff were deputed to the hospital for manpower. Now, most of the doctors and medical staff have been transferred to various other health centres in the district. Although a few staff members continue to report for duty, including two doctors retained here.

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The 551-bed facility was handed over to the state government on September 10, 2020, with proper ventilators, beds, lab equipment, air-conditioners, etc. Patients were treated and admitted in the first dedicated pandemic hospital in the country to be built from scratch at a cost of Rs 60 crore, more than a month later on October 26.

On Monday, April 11, the last person in treatment left the facility, and the following day there was no patient in the hospital. For the past many months, not a single Covid-19 case has visited the hospital, English Mathrubhumi reports.

The hospital is equipped with high-end technology that is of no use now and most of them are lying idle without proper maintenance and have started to corrode over time. So the health department has decided to transfer the equipment to other hospitals in the district. Earlier one of the cabins was provided o Pakalveedu, a daycare centre for people with mental illness.

District surveillance officer Geeta Gurudas told TH, "With the number of patients reduced from what it was during the peak of the pandemic, the Health Department has transferred a majority of the total 197 staff on working arrangements to other centres."

Speaking about the plans to construct a speciality hospital, she said "But there is no definitive plan as of now. Operating the existing facility is taking a toll (on the management). More than ₹2 lakh is required every month to pay the electricity bill alone."

However, proposals have begun to reach the government about the handover of the hospital to organizations that are in need of a large space for palliative care treatment. Confederation of Endosulfan Victims' Rights Collective secretary K.K. Ashokan noted that the National Human Rights Commission had suggested the development of a centralised palliative care facility with the backing of the State government in 2010. The organisation aids Endosulfan survivors.

Ashokan said "Many are still dependent on far-off hospitals. The government is wasting the resources and the facilities which can be put to proper use for endosulfan victims and other affected people. However, nothing is being done. The government should look into the matter seriously."

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