LDF government for total revamp of health sector

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF government will soon announce a comprehensive health policy aimed at completely overhauling the state’s health sector. This was announced by Health Minister K K Shailaja at a seminar here. The minister said the health sector required a total revamp. “We are in the process of bringing the entire state’s population under the E Health project. A comprehensive health chart of people residing in villages especially those seeking treatment at the Sub Centers would be prepared.

Shailaja said the government aimed at turning the existing medical colleges into Centres of Excellence. These institutions will be raised to the standard of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). In order to achieve this target, the government will look for additional resource mobilization besides creating a new staff pattern. The existing staff pattern in the medical colleges was sanctioned way back in 1961.

The minister assured that not a single medical college that had received the Medical Council of India’s sanction, would be scrapped. “The government will promote and encourage research activities in medical colleges. We want the young doctors to give top preference for research works,” she added.

Power Minister Kadakampally Surendran said such seminars and interactions would go a long was in providing a valuable input for the government’s new health policy. There is a need for complete revamp of the health sector and for such an initiative, the cooperation of sections of society is needed.

Important issues deliberated at the seminar included raising of the doctor-patient and patient-nursing staff ratio considering the phenomenal increase in the patients coming to these institutions, autonomy, self sufficiency and funding from non government sources. This is the first of the series of interactions planned by the government ahead of formulating the new health policy.