Date:09/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070955001000.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Quick care for accident victims

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Health Department will set up an emergency management system for rushing assistance to accident victims, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy said in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Replying to a debate on the demand for grants for Medical and Public Health and Family Welfare, the Minister said that initially, a Rs. 30-crore project covering districts such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Thrissur was planned. The National Rural Health Mission would provide Rs. 11 crore as assistance. Ambulance services would be provided within half an hour of contacting an emergency telephone number, 108.

The Minister denied Opposition allegations about irregularities in the purchase of computers for the department. The department was planning modernisation of the health information system by networking government hospitals and public health centres.

The newly formed Medical Services Corporation had introduced an inventory management system to monitor supply of medicines to various hospitals. The Corporation would ensure that there would be no shortages of medicines in government hospitals and dispensaries.

Ms. Sreemathy announced that the residency system would be introduced in medical colleges. Doctors in the colleges would be given time-bound promotions. Vacancies of junior health inspectors would be filled through promotions and direct recruitments in 1:3 ratio. An agreement had been reached with the association of junior inspectors in this respect.

A drug information centre would be started at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. It would answer telephonic queries from any part of the country. All pay wards under the Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society would be renovated.

She said new public health centres would be set up in 24 panchayat areas with the objective of having a health centre in every panchayat. Besides 50 to 100 Ayurveda and homoeopathy dispensaries would be sanctioned to panchayats having land and buildings. Nearly 50 defunct hospitals had been reopened.

After the Minister’s reply, the House passed the demands for grants totalling Rs. 1,028.65 crore.