Kozhikode: Kottaparamba hospital may lose NABH rating

Kozhikode: The Government Women and Children Hospital, Kottaparamba, which is the only National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH)-approved government hospital in North Malabar, may lose the status.

Despite the hospital authorities putting all efforts to get re-accreditation, the government is turning a blind eye without sanctioning funds and not letting it utilise the hospital fund.

The hospital set up in 1903 in memory of Queen Victoria caters to patients across the district with gynaecology, paediatric and anaesthesia departments. It is struggling to meet NABH standards mainly due to the staff shortage.

Though it receives some 400 patients a day - pregnant women and children - it has no full-time paediatrician.

"Maintenance of quality standards in delivering health care services especially in a government hospital is a herculean task as our services are almost free of cost," said NABH officer Augustine said.

"The small staff pattern granted earlier by the government is not matching to the requirements of the NABH."

At present around 500 deliveries are conducted in the hospital every month, and the number of outpatient consultations comes around 600 a day. The most serious issue in this regard is the severe shortage of nursing staff, a pattern fixed in 1961, which is pointed out as non-compliance during the surveillance audit of NABH held here.

Hospital authorities have been petitioning the government to fill up the vacancies for better patient care.

Kottaparamba hospital is one of the four hospitals in the city to get NABH accreditation, a rare feat for a government hospital, and on December 2, the NABH accreditation got expired.

"When the posts remain vacant, those who are available are forced to work extra and are overburdened. The delay in promotion of doctors is the reason for the existing vacancies," hospital superintendent Dr K.C. Rameshan told DC.