Idukki medical college only in 2019-20

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Idukki medical college will be up and running as a full-fledged teaching hospital only by 2019 if the deadline set by the government for completion of infrastructure facilities is any indication. Though there was pressure from different quarters to shelve the project especially because of the lack of infrastructure, the LDF government decided to go ahead with the medical college considering the special needs of people in the high range district. It was because of lack of infrastructure facilities that the government was forced to shift the students of 2014-15 and 2015-16 batches to medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Alappuzha and Thrissur.  There were no fresh batches in 2016-17, 2017-18 and the possibility of admission in 2018-19 is also unlikely.

Sources said going by the pace of the work  on the ground, the next batch is likely to be admitted in 2019-20. Since the MCI had cancelled the Letter of Permission (LOP) given earlier, the government has applied for a fresh one. Though the MCI had termed the transfer of students to other colleges as “illegal” and a violation of existing norms, the state government had defended its decision saying that the standard of medical education in Kerala was high and it could not be comprised. It had also sought Union health ministry’s intervention to cancel MCI order to shift students back to Idukki.

Meanwhile, some doctors have expressed serious concern over the delay in providing infrastructure facilities. Till recently the college had 60 faculty members who were subsequently redeployed in Paripally medical college and sent on working arrangement to Thrissur and Alappuzha respectively. Sources said  by third year the college should have had 150 faculty. Similarly, the existing bed strength should have been 300 for better teaching facilities.

The college needs full fledged clinical departments as students have to undergo clinical training in their second year in orthopaedics, dermatology, respiratory medicine, psychiatry, ophthalmology,  ENT, casualty, clinical pathology and community medicine. In the third year the students require more departments.  A section of doctors pointed out that during the final year the hospital should have 700 beds. To accommodate so many beds, the medical college would need big complexes. Considering the topography of the area, constructing multi-storey buildings in the 40 acre of land allotted to the institution may be a difficult task. Clearly, the government will have to draw a concrete plan whether to have multi storey or single story buildings on the land.