Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Principal warns doctors after organ donation controversy
Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital
Thiruvananthapuram: A controversy has erupted after the Head of the Nephrology Department at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital (MCH) publicly criticised Kerala’s post-mortem organ donation programme, the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS/K-SOTTO), calling it a “complete failure.”
In a social media post mourning the death of former nephrology head Dr Venugopal, the present HoD Dr Mohan Das said that the project had lost its success after the passing of Dr Ramdas, who played a key role in building the Mrithasanjeevani (K-SOTTO) initiative.
“It was Dr Venugopal and Dr Ramdas who made the Mrithasanjeevani project in Kerala a success. With the death of Dr Ramdas, Mrithasanjeevani has become a total failure," he said in the post.
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He also pointed out that not even a single cadaver transplant had taken place at Alappuzha Medical College, despite it being the base of the K-SOTTO executive director. However, Das later deleted the post.
Responding to the criticism, the Principal of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, Dr PK Jabbar, issued a strict directive to doctors, barring them from making public statements. He warned of strict disciplinary action against violations of service rules, reports Onmanorama.
The criticism came almost two months after Dr Haris Chirakal publicly disclosed the shortage of surgical equipment and delays in surgeries at the state-run Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.
Medical Dialogues had previously reported that a social media post by a leading senior urologist disclosing a shortage of surgical equipment and delays in surgeries for months at the state-run Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital has gained widespread attention and landed him in an open fight against the health department, all for the sake of his patients.
Dr Haris Chirakkal, Head of the Urology Department at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, shared a detailed Facebook post, which is now deleted, where he highlighted the grim situation at the hospital as he could no longer stay silent as a doctor. Although Dr Chirakkal agreed to delete his Facebook post at the DME’s request, he later told reporters that the issues he raised persist.
In his post, he expressed his frustration after repeated delays in surgeries due to a lack of basic medical equipment. He pointed out that doctors are left helpless as patients wait for critical surgeries for months, only to have them cancelled due to the unavailability of essential medical equipment. As a result, poor patients and their families are left confused and hopeless, not knowing what to do next, he added.
