Kerala: RCC Doctors threaten to protest over poor facilities

Health Minister Veena George has already scheduled a meeting on Thursday to discuss the matter with the protesting staff and the management.

Many doctors have left the institutions due to irregularities and inconsistencies in the salary system and structure, arbitrary promotions, and complaints about inadequate facilities to meet the expanding demand.

A representative of the doctors' association told The Indian Express, "The RCC had become a model for public sector hospitals in providing quality service. But over the past two decades, it has stopped growing in terms of infrastructure and staff patterns. As a result, patients suffer because they are forced to wait longer for operation and radiation treatments." He claimed that RCC's adverse working conditions were the reason that many competent doctors left the organization and each of these problems should be addressed individually.

In 2018–19, RCC provided treatment to 2.74 lakh patients. Particularly after the lockdown, the number of patients kept on increasing. Every year, the hospital receives more than 15,000 new cases. The inadequate supply of medications has been one of the main grievances about RCC. "Patients have to purchase most of the medicines from outside. For medicine that costs less than `10, they will have to take an autorickshaw and spend `60 to purchase it from outside," said a volunteer for patients at RCC.

A public protest that the doctors' organization had planned to hold on July 1 was postponed as a result of the intervention of the health minister's office. The doctors decided to start an agitation demanding an increased pay structure. A recent government order declared that the house rent allowance and the travel allowance would not be reinstated, despite the fact that they were supposed to be restored.

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