Idukki medical college deficient in growth hormone'

Thiruvananthapuram: The directorate of medical education may have decided to shift 49 students of Idukki medical college to other medical colleges in the state for their second year MBBS, but the future of the subsequent batches is also uncertain because of lack of infrastructure facilities there.

The Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA) has expressed serious concern over the delay in providing the facilities. “At the moment the college has about 80 faculty members and by the third year, it should have 150. Similarly, the existing bed strength of 200 has to be raised to 300 to ensure better teaching facilities,” said Dr Vijayan, president of KGMCTA.

The medical college also requires full-fledged clinical departments as the students have to undergo clinical training in their second year in orthopaedics, dermatology, respiratory medicine, psychiatry, ophthalmology,  ENT, casualty, clinical pathology and community medicine.

However, these facilities are yet to be put in place. During their third year the students would require more departments and given the pace of the work, it looks unlikely, that the authorities would be able to meet the deadline.

“We want to put in place all facilities for the third year MBBS students in the institution itself,” said Dr  Ramla Beevi, director of medical education. The doctors say during the final year, the hospital should have 700 beds. For accommodating so many beds, it would need big complexes. Considering the topography of the area, constructing multi-storey buildings on the 40 acres of land allotted to the institution may be difficult.

The KGMCTA has pointed out that though infrastructure facilities were far better in the newly set up Manjeri Medical College, there are other problems that need to be rectified. Since health service department runs the hospital, majority of the doctors belong to the non-teaching stream.