Open super speciality depts in govt hospitals, say doctors

CHENNAI: The government doctors on Saturday suggested starting speciality and super speciality departments in the existing government medical colleges in the state.

In a slew of proposals ahead of the discussion of providing grants to the state health department in the State Assembly, the doctors said that the quality of the medical colleges and the doctors should be maintained. According to them, there are already 71 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu including 37 run by the government and 34 private medical colleges, which makes one doctor for 250 people. As per the World Health Organisation, there should be one doctor for every 100 people.

The standards of the facilities in the government hospitals should be raised so that the facilities are accessible to the people, said Dr S Perumal Pillai, president of the legal coordination committee for government doctors. He said laboratory facilities should be improved so that all types of tests can be done in government hospitals.

“Research papers play an important role in the medical world. Today, private hospitals publish more research papers even though they deal with fewer patients. But in government medical college hospitals, which are overflowing with patients throughout the year, the number of research papers published is very low,” he said.