Ensure treatment also for non-Covid patients

With even the specialty departments being converted into Covid treatment, treatment in medical college hospitals in the state for non-Covid patients has become nominal. It is difficult to describe the suffering caused by this for those who have to rely on medical colleges with multiple ailments. This includes those who need further treatment. Very few surgeries are currently performed in medical college hospitals that too the ones that are completely indispensable. This is an issue that also affects the learning of medical students. This is also a situation that requires the immediate intervention of the government.

When the Covid epidemic got out of control, medical college hospitals had to be almost completely converted to treat Covid as there was no other way out. In the first instance it was inevitable. But it remains the same for a year and a half now, making it difficult for thousands of people who need specialist treatment for other diseases. If the Medical College Hospital is reorganized by setting aside a portion for more serious Covid sufferers, it will also help other patients in need of emergency treatment. The inability to take action so far has created a situation where the treatment of other patients has to be discontinued. Many have been forced to seek out private hospitals as specialty units have ceased to function. Though more wards have been set up for Covid treatment, no additional facilities or people are there. Despite the opening of the wards, the inability to admit patients still persists.

Apart from the Medical College Hospital, the Eye Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram has also been converted into a Covid Centre. It is not certain whether the decision to turn the state's oldest eye hospital, which is relied upon by tens of thousands of eye patients every year, into an almost complete Covid center was considered after contemplations. There are several centres for Covid treatment in the district, including the General Hospital. Facilities there can be further enhanced. As that is the case, the conversion of the eye hospital into a treatment is cruelty shown towards ordinary patients, who need quality ophthalmology service.

In the first months after the outbreak, ordinary patients were generally afraid to go to the hospital. Ordinary patients were reluctant to seek treatment because of severe concerns about whether they would contract Covid. That is why hospitals were not overcrowded then. But now that situation is changing. When the condition of a patient worsens, he or she will have to go to the hospitals, seeking specialist doctors. So this should not get hindered.