Kerala’s round-the-clock specialist hospital plan faces staffing and political obstacles

Kerala’s Health Department is struggling to expand round-the-clock specialist care at general and district hospitals, The Hindu reported. Punalur taluk hospital is the only pilot site identified in the supplied material. The hospital has found it difficult to sustain 24-hour services amid an acute shortage of doctors and local political pushback.

Officials had promised to redeploy specialists and use teleconsultations to support the programme. The report did not say how many doctors were available at Punalur, how often services had been interrupted or which specialties were affected. The plan also depends on the creation of hundreds of new specialist posts.

The Health Department has sought approval for the posts, but the Finance Department had not approved the request, according to the report. The supplied material did not give a timetable for a decision or say whether the programme would be revised. It did, however, identify staffing, political resistance and the pending funding decision as obstacles to maintaining and expanding the proposed 24-hour service.