6 days ago
State's health system ‘cracking at every joint', says UDF report
T'puram: Kerala's vaunted "people-centred" health system is "cracking at every joint", warns a report submitted by the UDF health sub-committee chaired by senior IUML leader M K Muneer and consisting of representatives from all UDF constituents.
The 23-page document billed as an effort to "reinvent the real Kerala model" accuses the state govt of presiding over a cascade of drug shortages, failed missions and stalled upgrades that left ordinary patients footing private bills for everything from sutures to MRI scans.
The report says the flagship Aardram Mission, launched in 2016 to convert 846 primary health centres into family health centres, "plateaued after phase one" only 170 PHCs were upgraded, most without the promised extra nurses, pharmacists, or lab staff.
Evening OP hours attract only token footfall, while the PHC reclassification drained the workforce from taluk and district hospitals, leaving them understaffed and overburdened.
These secondary facilities, the report notes, still operate with a 1964-era staffing pattern.
The tertiary sector too, the report says, is "building-rich and staff-poor". Several KIIFB-funded hospital blocks are lying unused due to the absence of sanctioned doctors, nurses or technicians.
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Cath labs installed in district hospitals with the intent of reducing the load on medical college hospitals remain idle or function only in limited shifts.
Drug procurement once considered a Kerala success story is now in disarray. The state-run Kerala medical services corporation Ltd (KMSCL) owes pharmaceutical companies Rs 695cr, prompting firms to cut deliveries by more than half. Kozhikode medical college alone has Rs 90cr pending, while the govt owes hospital development societies Rs 240cr in reimbursements.
At Thiruvananthapuram medical college, patients wait over six months for MRI or CT scans as machines remain defunct for most of the week. Meanwhile, a vigilance probe into nepotism and irregular appointments at SAT Hospital has dragged on for two years without conclusion. The report recounts an incident where a caesarean section was performed under mobile torchlight due to a power outage, calling it symbolic of how far the system has fallen.
S
chemes once flagged as Kerala's health innovations now lie in tatters. The Hridyam programme for paediatric heart surgery and Aarogya Kiranam, which guarantees free treatment to children under 18, have both been crippled by fund shortages. The cochlear implant scheme Shruthi Tharangam, which helped over 630 children during the UDF era, has virtually stalled, leaving broken processors unrepaired for years.
Even as lifestyle diseases rise and non-communicable conditions take hold of a growing population, a large-scale NCD screening programme initiated with great fanfare has fizzled out after baseline surveys. The committee warns that dengue, rabies, H1N1 and new outbreaks like Nipah are testing the state's threadbare vector control system. Post-Covid, most PHCs have pivoted entirely to curative functions, with prevention now reduced to slogans.
Emergency care is no better. Ambulance crashes rose to 193 in 2022, with 130 deaths over four years. Marginalized groups have been left behind. Despite Kerala preparing a transgender policy in 2014, no medical college has gender clinics or surgery infrastructure. Tribal areas suffer shockingly high infant mortality and birth-weight deficits Attapadi's average newborn weight is 1.5kg compared to the state's 2.8kg.
Endosulfan victims in Kasaragod, officially listed at 6,727, still lack specialist care and rely on neighbouring Karnataka for treatment.
The committee urges the govt to clear all dues to drug suppliers, fix accountability for failed schemes, immediately operationalise unused facilities and restore core public health functions like surveillance and disease prevention. "The myth of an unassailable Kerala model is over," the report concludes.
