Pending dues: GMC Kottayam performs fewer surgeries, patient care hit

Kottayam: The Kerala government's delay in clearing the dues of the Government Medical College Hospital (GMC) Kottayam affects patient care and surgeries, which have reduced significantly in the last month. 

The hospital state that surgeries can only be performed if the money is deposited by the patients in advance. Very few surgeries were performed in the hospital during the previous month. 

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The operation theatres of the orthopaedic, surgery and cardiology departments are almost closed now, which earlier used to be the hotspot for a number of major operations. 

The nephrology department, which used to perform over 200 surgeries a month, is usually empty these days. The cardiothoracic department is reported to have completed around 55 surgeries in the last 25 days, which used to perform around 200 surgeries earlier with government assistance. 

The hospital authorities are asking the patients to pay in advance to perform the surgeries. Several patients stay in lodges waiting for the insurance card problems to be solved. 

As per the media report in OnManorama, the healthcare services of the hospital were affected after popular healthcare projects were discontinued and government assistance was reduced. 

The government owns the hospital over Rs 19 crore for various projects and over Rs 80 crore is overdue with the agencies supplying medicines. Due to the pending dues, the agencies have reportedly stopped the medicine supply. 

Interestingly, CPM state secretary M V Govindan had recently heaped praises on the hospital in a recent debate, where he had observed that patients from his native place are also going there for surgeries. 

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported about a massive fire break-out at an under-construction building of a state-run Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Kottayam. However, no causalities were reported from the incident, but it led to panic among the patients and their attendants staying in the neighbouring block where the psychiatric, medicine wards and Intensive Care for Dialysis patients were operating. 

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