053. What Does This Minister Harsh Vardhan Know About Horrible Kerala Health?

What Does This Minister Harsh Vardhan Know About Horrible Kerala Health?

By Special Correspondent,

Kerala Health Research Online

Can Government of India’s Union Health Minister be this much ignorant about a state? Can he repeat what his speech-writer scribbles this much blindly? What does this Mr. Harsh Vardhan actually know about Kerala’s health?

From India Today News 21 September 2014:

‘The Union Health Minister was full of praise for the Kerala Health Sector who maintained that the achievements of Kerala in the health sector are a model for the country and the state has been maintaining quality right from the primary health sector to the medical college sector. The minister was inaugurating the 13th Annual Conference of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India, Kerala branch. He admitted it was quite alarming that India occupied the top spot globally in suicide of youths' in the 15 to 35 age group, and it was most unfortunate that 75,455 persons committed suicide in Kerala in the 10 years between 2003 and 2013. Kerala health minister V. S. Sivakumar said Kerala was aiming for comprehensive health protection by including modern scientific technologies in the medical treatment.’ (Reported by PTI)

Note From Editor, Kerala Health Research Online:

The Union Minister's observations cannot be based on statistics collected in their Kerala Health Survey because the Director of Health Services Dr. P. K. Jameela pointed out that these union statistics is erring and differs much from Kerala health department statistics. Mr. Harsh Vardhan’s and Mr. V. S. Siva Kumar’s yelping do not deserve comments. But these two ministers need read some good articles evaluating Kerala’s health. Kerala Health Research Online would like to quote here for their use an article written in February 2007 by Dr. C. R. Soman, Former Professor and Head of the Department at Medical College, Trivandrum, Kerala’s Health Activist and noted Nutritionist. We regret this learned doctor is no more with us; he left us in 2009. Had he lived, he would not have hesitated to make reply to these two ignorant politicians. 

Kerala's Crisis in Public Health. By Dr. C. R. Soman.

Kerala is on the brink of a public health crisis. The state, which set an example for the rest of India and third world countries in providing primary health care, now gropes in the dark and is fast losing the edge. The great achievements in the fields of mortality and fertility have reached a plateau, and the near-universal immunization coverage achieved in the nineties has fallen. 

The state is regularly visited by emerging outbreaks of leptospirosis, dengue fever and other insect-borne viral fevers; the latest entrant is chickungunya. Natural ecology has been tampered with and the once-famous backwaters of the state are polluted and weed-infested. Waste disposal in the municipalities and corporations still remains a formidable challenge. Conventional methods like land-fill evoke furious protests from local inhabitants. Critics have re-christened 'God's Own Country' as 'God's Own Junkyard'. 

The state health department is no longer the prime mover of health development. With less than a third of physicians, beds and institutions under the government, the state health services department is a mute spectator to the rapid decay of health services, particularly primary healthcare. Many primary health centers are unmanned. Drug procurement and distribution systems are outmoded and complaints of drug unavailability appear frequently in the media. The state-run medical colleges have no longer bright young academics to work for. They opt for more lucrative placement in the burgeoning private sector instead. Many super-specialty departments face the threat of closure in the absence of new recruitments. 

There are worse problems. Recent studies suggest that Kerala has the highest burden of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and over-nutrition. Conservative estimates put the number of people with diabetes at three million; people with hypertension at 4.5 million and those with overweight and obesity at 10 million. 

Every year in Kerala, between 45,000 and 50,000 people die of heart attacks, while stroke kills over 20,000. In comparison, the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS is just over 200. But the government perceives HIV control as a greater priority. 

It is the healthcare industry that benefits from this sordid state of affairs in Kerala. Private hospitals offering sophisticated tertiary care are mushrooming, even in villages. By-pass surgery and coronary artery stenting are buzzwords familiar even to the children. One would be lucky if an MRI scan is not ordered if you reach a physician with a headache. The doctors prescribe laboratory tests even for minor ailments. 

They may argue that a variety of investigation is necessary for complete profiling of the disease in modern medical practice. According to the Indian Medical Association, the doctor would be in trouble if the diagnosis goes wrong. It argues that they practice defensive medicine. But defensive against whom? Implied in this approach is the assumption that people, individually and collectively, are enemies of the medical profession. The IMA cites stories of attacks against doctors and increasing trend towards litigation against hospitals to buttress their arguments. 

These are convincing arguments for the naive. The sad truth is such arguments are alibis offered to mislead and misinform. The over-use of technology and drugs is driven by greed - a greed that is fuelled and perpetuated by an unholy nexus between doctors, the drug industry and the diagnostic sector. Huge rewards are offered to the physicians for prescribing expensive investigations. Anywhere between Rs.2000 and 2500 is offered as commission for an MRI scan; 40 percent of the fee levied from laboratory investigations reach the doctor as commission. 

Private hospitals make more money through over-investigating patients in their own laboratories than from providing care to the patient. Profit at any cost is the watchword. Doctors in the government sector also gain through the nexus between the industry and the profession. The government has made no attempt to regulate the healthcare industry, and often goes out of the way to provide them with more concessions and soaps. 

Naturally, the victims are common men. Falling sick has become a reason for one to be pushed into debts. The Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad's (KSSP's) studies revealed that at least 15 percent families spend over 30 percent of their income on healthcare alone. While private healthcare costs exceed Rs.55 billion per annum, the government expenditure is falling steadily. The government's failure in providing affordable healthcare is likely to fuel public anger. Hospitals and doctors are likely to be targets of public attacks. Facilities for medical education are being auctioned off to the highest bidders. 

To complete undergraduate course in a private medical college requires Rs. 3-5 million. Naturally, they would expect quick returns for the investment. Fleecing the people would be the only choice! Those who get state-funded medical education are only too eager to fly abroad. And those who choose to stay home prefer to work in cities and towns, leaving primary health centers unattended. 

Medical care in the state has become dehumanized and privatized. Commodifying healthcare- increasingly driven by profit- will demolish all that the state had achieved in the health sector during the last decades of the 20th century. The future looks bleak for Kerala.

Tribute to Late Dr. C. R. Soman.

  

052. Save Health From Shamans of Ayurveda And Shehanshas Of Allopathy

Save Health From Shamans of Ayurveda And Shehanshas Of Allopathy 

By P.S.Remesh Chandran
Editor-in-Chief
Kerala Health Research Online

Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani are the three Indian systems of medicine used widely in Kerala. Before two centuries, there were only these three systems in Kerala. There was no allopathy. The control of these three was put under the Director of Health Services and control of the drugs belonging to these three indigenous systems of treatment was put under the State Drug Control Administration. The variety of plants and herbs relating to these systems were to be cultivated and promoted by the Medicinal Plant Board OF Kerala. In short, under the British and under the post-British governments in Kerala, ayurveda, siddha and unani had no identity. For government, health meant, and still means allopathy. Kerala’s Chief Minister, Health Minister and Health Secretary, if and when they become sick, will only go to an allopathic hospital, that too a large private one, only. 

Doctors, staff and the treatment technology of native systems suffered much and had to compromise much under the allopathic strong hands who controlled them in the health services department of Kerala. They were considered pariahs by those in the department and in the government and allopathic personnel were considered like Brahmins! Hospitals, beds, staff, medicines, equipments and vehicles would only be provided for the allopathic system. Leave, increment, higher grade, promotion and pension applied for by native systems’ staff would be ignored by the staff of the DHS, or kept pending or go missing altogether in the health directorate and the various district medical offices. These systems with more than 2000 years’ tradition were condemned, laughed at, ignored and disparaged by arrogant medical and clerical officers in the health services department, while they catered everyway to the whims of the proponents of a system which was only 200 years old. This neglect and hatred of officers towards these three time-tested and cheap systems of medicine gradually created such a fury and uproar among people who could not afford costly allopathic treatment and medicines, reflected well in the popularity of the few remaining ayurveda, siddha and unani physicians in the state reached a stage where unless these native systems were not separated from the state health services, people will see to it that the allopathic drug industry in the state collapse. At last bifurcation came, against the wishes of the health department. A separate Department of Indigenous Systems of Medicine (Ayurveda) was created, under a new director and staff. Still the question and state of siddha and unani systems remained the same. Like ayurveda suffered under the allopathic directorate, they continued to suffer under the control of the new Ayurveda Directorate. No separate departments and directorates for them were ever created, bi-furcating them from Ayurveda Department. 

The Government of India and people in the health sector of India had by then come to believe that only the creation of an exclusive Ayush Department for catering to the needs of native systems of medicine in India would hold them and save them from the immensely rich and strong allopathic industry. India turned this line and several states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar began to bifurcate them from the mainstream of allopathic health services and create separate Ayush Departments for their protection and rescue. Many states in India which are long being ruled and exploited by the allopathic industry, due to politicians and bureaucrats on the payroll of this behemoth industry, still oppose formation of separate Ayush Departments. These states include Kerala which is thought to be one of the most progressive states in India, literally and culturally. The fact is, the State Health Services Department, Directorate and Ministry is heavily bribed by the allopathic industry to make creation of Ayush Department impossible. 

Will creating a separate new department for Ayush solve the problems of indigenous systems of medicine in Kerala and save them is another question. Did the attempts of the health services department save allopathy in Kerala? More hospitals, staff, medicines and equipments came to be built, employed and procured but more number of people became sick and sought treatment each year. Population did not increase much but number of sick people increased unbelievably. Without thousands and thousands of large private hospitals coming into commissioning, the health department could not have contained this situation. Like traitors and cowards, they permitted opening up and privatization of everything in medicine and treatment. 

The problem, when viewed from the people’s side, is enough government hospitals to give free treatment in indigenous systems not being there. Sick people wreck the economy. When they become sick they cannot work; unless they are treated back to well being, they will perish, economy will collapse and country will ruin. That is why state has to provide free treatment. That is the concept of free hospitals system. We may ask, cannot the sick person pay for the treatment? Learn that we become sick only when the last rupee has left our purse. Diseases will not come to us when we are ready with money. Remember that a sick person is a person without money, almost always. So the problem, as far as people are concerned, is setting up new training centres for indigenous systems, creating more doctors and staff, teaching them new techniques, making available new hospitals, staff, medicines and equipments and provide infrastructure. But, for the Ayurveda doctors in Kerala, representing the Ayurveda Medical Association of India, it is only a problem of setting up a new Ayush Department in line with what the central government did in New Delhi and creating a few posts of Joint Directors for them in the Government Secretariate, which was just what they requested to the health minister of Kerala in February 2013. There is a standard phrase in government dealings which every desperate post-seeker uses: ‘this would make no additional financial commitment for the government’, and they used it. In a country where MLAs sit in state assemblies and vote unanimously for their own pay rise instead of conducting public referendum, what else can we expect from ambitious doctors? 

The arguments of the Ayurveda Medical Association of India can be read here: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=73654&sid=1


Tags: Health, Kerala Health, Indian Health, Health Research, Health News, Health Service, Indian Systems Of Medicine, Indigenous Systems Of Medicine, Allopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Ayush Department,

046. When Did Kerala Health Qualify For Central Grant For Total Automation?

When Did Kerala Health Qualify For Central Grant For Total Automation?

By Special Correspondent

The Department of Health, Kerala, in their Face Book page dated 24th January 2013, announced that they won a grant for total automation of the department. There was no mention of the amount involved or what specific uses the amount of this grant was ordered to be put into, as if it is their private pleasure and right to hide specific information from people and use this grant at their will. First we shall read here their own article from their Face Book. Do not mind the language and grammar, for it represents only the person going to benefit most from this ‘grant’. 

Then we shall look into the Face Book Set Up of this department to see how current, updated and sophisticated they are to receive such India Government grants for total automation. To tell the truth, they do not qualify for it. A screen shot of their page on April 05, 2014 denotes that they are 8 months back in digital updatedness and that they are not skilled and resourceful enough to control such elaborate e-health governance for an entire state, unless they outsource everything which is what they really wish to do. If they outsource it as is evidenced from this article, it is illegal and against the interests of the people. It seems this is going to become a sequel to the ill famous solar scam, involving perhaps the same kind of people. The government is quite unwilling to disclose the names of the people who ‘expressed their interest’ to participate in the various projects likely to come up in connection with the implementation of e-health in Kerala. Even then they ‘won’ a Union Government grant for total automation. How did this happen and which powers were behind it?

Their article which is reproduced here is just a blabbering of the uninformed and the uncaring in the health field of Kerala, knowing nothing about e-governance or electronic health informatics, interested only in the securing of funds from all possible sources and spending it at their will. They care nothing about people’s health or the privacy and confidentiality of people’s health data or government servants’ accountability. If what they say on doing things in the name of e-health is to be believed to be going to happen actually, they either intend to ignore the legalities of accessibility to health data, protection of health data, citizens’ rights to privacy and confidentiality of their sensitive health data and international guide lines for sharing patient data, or they think they can simply bypass these by sheer criminality. Certainly the health minister of Kerala, a politician who proclaims to know everything under the sun, the political parties of Kerala who assume the role of keeping suspicious views of everything, the various scientific, civil and human rights organizations who pretend to know about every law in the world and interfere in almost everything and the news media in Kerala who report every involvement above five lakhs rupees as scams, did not speak a word against this involvement which is sure to affect the life of every man, woman and child in Kerala. They all will have their piece of the pie, or their relatives or favourites will have it. Violating international chapters on safeguarding sensitive patient data, the people involved in e-health finance and administration in Kerala, are going to enlist private parties and outsource sensitive works to them, at the risk of data loss, theft and manipulation. If there are investigating agencies in Kerala, it is time they begin. 

Note that when it was assured that a considerable amount of money would be allotted by the Union Government, there were a rush of activities. Pages were opened in DHS and NRHM websites, news released to news papers and television channels and articles were posted in Face Book. When the money actually came to Trivandrum, it all stopped; there were no more updating or information release, ever. From then onwards, everything became secret and silent, till the alert and vigilant Treasuries Officers began to turn down e-health bills for enormous amounts.

Department of Health, Government of Kerala. Face Book Article On 24 January 2013. 

Health department Kerala was won a project grant from the Department of IT (DeITY) Government of India for total automation of the department. This will have three arms: automation of demographic data indexed on UID, State Data Centre (where all individual data would be stored) linked to all health institutions and accessed by field workers through a 3G enbled tablets and hospital automation. The field workers will digitise the family health register where each individual will be identified by UID. This data would be sent to the state data centre (SDC) through the Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN). The field worker will be able to down load the demographic data she needs for her planned work for the data and be able to update the individual data at the SDC with new data generated (immunisation, Blood Pressure data) during her work for the day.

When the person visits any government health institution this data would be downloaded to the local server of the institution. This would be available at the OP, Consultation room, pharmacy, lab etc. It will contain alerts for the physician, pharmacist and other staff such as pre-existing condition, specific allergies etc. The communication between different parts of the hospital (e.g: Cinician and laboratory or Ward Nurse and Pharmacy) will be through the system. At the time of discharge an abstract will go back to update the data at the SDC.

Our aim to develop an Electronic Health Record for every citizen of the state. Once it is stablised the private sector may also be invited to participate. The project aims to make data available for planning, research and for individuals to manage their own health. Government of India sees this as a pilot project to apply IT to ensuring Universal Health Coverage in the country. 

The challenge is to develop good Functional Requirement Specifications. Our teams are on this task now.

Screen Shot of Department of Health, Kerala’s Face Book page. See how current they are:

039. Kerala's E-Health In Dark Shadows

Bookmark this page; we update information regularly.

Kerala’s E-Health In Dark Shadows

By Special Correspondent

E Health is new to Kerala State in India and, considering the strange avenues into which massive corruption has penetrated into, we have decided to closely follow the state’s activities in this field from the very beginning to as far as we can follow in time and space such that when something happens good or bad, no one will have to wonder. When corruption occurs in large scale in this field which surely will and e-health in Kerala reported to be in shambles and disarray, there will certainly be investigations but within that time, millions of rupees will have gone. We wish to report things from the beginning so that we can pinpoint persons who were responsible when considerable amounts money are lost from public funds. We certainly will have repercussions, oppositions and even retaliation from those involved, which we do expect, which also we hope to report through these pages.

The centres of activities in implementing this project in Kerala are the Health Secretary’s office in Government of Kerala in the Secretariate, the Directorate of Health Services and the Mission Directorate of the National Rural Health Mission, all situated in Trivandrum. The first thing which was got done by those involved was getting prepared a report on the possibilities and scope of implementing e-health in Kerala which, we believe, was commissioned out to persons not in this field. This report got approved and then what we heard was media news about some funds being brought to Kerala, allocated by the Government of India. (We, in these columns earlier have reported the same). Some reported it to be 97 crores and some said it was only 92 crores but all wondered in secret where the balance did go, considering the usual rate of ten percent realized by political agents in India for getting a project approved and financed. Government of India usually allots 100 crores. It is inconceivable that the full amount reached Kerala, if it did, in contradiction to North Indian standards. Or has our country progressed beyond being a puritan state?

All digital health activities in a state will have to be controlled and monitored from a single centre, to minimize theft of confidential patient data which is costly and which would be beneficial to a multitude of commercial organizations from insurance companies to health psychic predictors. We will be startled at the incompetence and lack of imagination with which the Directorate of Health Services operates its own simple website, let alone the massive and complicated encrypted data flow in connection with e-health governance. It is a crude website where people cannot interact; data are scanty, incomplete and unreliable, what shall be there is not there and what shall not be there is there, data never updated since inception and pages will not open and if they open will have only a few irrelevant sentences. We enquired and learned that there was no one there to do these things except temporary hands lent by peripheral institutions. No one can believe that such gross neglect and ignorance can be engaged to monitor the digital clinical maneuvers in the whole state, unless the same is outsourced-something feared in even England, United States, France and Germany. Insurance companies alone will spend a million dollars to see central stores of people’s health data established. Let us take the example of the E-Health Link in the DHS’ web site:

Since the starting of this digital front of the state’s health in 2013, the E-Health link remains skeletally maintained and laughable; it has no important data or information to display. See a snap-shot of this page as on 19 March 2014 which is self-revealing. There is not mention of the important things in the field that have happened! The importance is laid not in enlightening people on this new subject which even these ‘authorities’ know nothing about and which is going to affect people’s lives every way, but on how the 92 crores could be spent safely without public interference.

An Expression of Interest in May 2013, an inevitable corrigendum six days after, four ridiculous queries the same month- this was all. And it was the month of the greatest digital activity in this Directorate- or that was what they wished to make public. Five Months later, in October 2013, there was application invited for the post of Manager but no mention of who applied for and who was selected.  

The Expression of Interest was posted on 3 May 2013 with a deadline on 18 October 2013 with no mention after the deadline of who expressed interest and who were approved and short-listed. Note that this was a period in Kerala when the greatest number of fraudulent people and organizations submitted bids and took part or collaborated in heavily-funded government projects, with Solar Scam in the lead. No wonder the names of people who expressed interest in government’s e-health project could not be publicized!

Things are dubious and large amounts of public money are involved. Why permit them to steal away people’s money in leisure instead of going after them and following every move? We know that there is a Vigilance Wing in the Directorate of Health Services, administered by an Additional Director of Health Services who does nothing but hunt petty lowly employees like Hospital Attendants, Nursing Assistants, Nurses and Clerks. How many doctors and officers of authority did they found out guilty and charged in the past 25 years? Their main duty is to hand over the names of those who report corruption and misdeeds to reported culprits, their actual subordinates! Never did they detect something in their own initiative without someone reporting or complaining. That is the same situation with the government’s vigilance department. No one in vigilance detects something on their own account. Everything has to be detected by people or newspaper reporters and details conveyed to them. Then they will investigate, reluctantly.

So it is now our own duty to detect and report, which we shall do; let us see what they do to charge-sheet and punish them, if there happens to be something punishable. We, decided to follow two routes- private investigation and the broad route of the Right to Information Act. What our private investigations revealed shall be reported to you readers later in its time but we find it nothing inappropriate to publish in time to time what we found out via the broad path.

Here is our original Registered Letter to the concerned Public Information Officers on 20 March 2014. We think these questions we asked are pertinent, which everybody may wish to ask:

Application for information under the Right to Information Act

To

The Public Information Officer,

Government of Kerala, Secretariate, Trivandrum.

Department of Health and Family Welfare,

Government of Kerala, Secretariate, Trivandrum.
Directorate of Health Services, Trivandrum.
Directorate of National Rural Health Mission, Trivandrum.

Dear Sir,

I request you to kindly make available to me under the Right to Information Act, in writing, the following information which is not classified, within the prescribed time limit. I have affixed Rs.10/ worth of Court Fee Stamps as fees.

Does Kerala State Government wish to implement E Health in Kerala?

If yes, which are the agencies/offices through which it is to be implemented? Have the Government of Kerala Collaborators/ Nodal Agencies for formulating/implementing this project?

Did Government of Kerala or any of its departments/offices/collaborators receive any funds from anywhere for formulating, developing or implementing E Health project, and if so, who is the custodian of this fund? Please give name and full official and postal address.

If funds were received or offered, which were the sources of such funds? Please give specific details of communications allowing/releasing/offering of such funds.

Were any amounts from the funds transferred to any individuals/ establishments/ organizations on account of fees, services, salaries, honorarium and/or allowances? If so, please give the mode of payment, their names and full postal addresses and reasons for transfer of money, along with details of cheques, demand drafts and acquittances.

Were any advertisements given in any media inviting Expression of Interest on this project, and if so, where? What were the dead lines and who were the persons/institutions/organizations who expressed their interest? Please give full postal addresses.

Did the names and addresses of those who expressed interest in the project published in media where the original invitation for EOI was advertised, and if not, why? Where else was it published?

Which are the posts created for implementing this project? Please give full pay scales, incentives and other perks.

Where were advertisements inviting applications to these posts published? Please give specific links and dead lines.

Who were selected for each post? Please give their names, full postal addresses and the last institutions where they served with name of designation and period of service there. Were their names and posts published anywhere?

Which posts are yet/proposed to be created in connection with this project and when and where are they going to be advertised?

Please include names and addresses of Appealing Authorities also in your reply.

Sincerely Yours,

P.S.Remesh Chandran, Padmalayam, Nanniyode,
Pacha Post, Trivandrum-695562, Kerala.
Dated: 20 March 2014.

We sent these requests by registered post, and they have 30 days time to give us their answer, if they give in time which is unusual. We will wait and post their replies here, along with papers of appeal if it goes up to there. Meanwhile we will see what other things happen in this field.

Here is a book being announced and we would like to add excerpts from the book here for the readers’ knowledge:

The RTI Letter we sent to The Public Information Officer, Government of Kerala, Secretariate, Trivandrum was returned by the Indian Postal Department, with the endorsement, ‘Not Sufficient Address’ and not with ‘There Is No Such Addressee’. We know government functions through its various departments, but why as a single entity government did not appoint a Public Information Officer? It is dubious. A delivery postman, as per rules, cannot determine in his office whether the designation exists or not or whether the concerned officer would accept it or not, provided the name of the government office and the place where it functions is printed in the address. He certainly has to take the letter to that office. So we shall assume the postman did take the letter to the office but the officer-in-charge declined to accept the letter. What right has a government officer to reject a letter from a citizen addressed to government, on the basis of whatever technical grounds? Even if a citizen does not mention the Right to Information Act in his letter, is not the government liable to convey the information he requested?

The Department of Health and Family Welfare sent a reply signed by one Mr. Sudarsanan, Additional Secretary, which stated that ‘the Government of Kerala implemented the e-health through the National Rural Health Mission and details are available with them’. Does not this department have a Public Relation Officer to reply to RTI letters and why is that designation absent in this reply? He did convey information on point number 1 but omitted point numbers 2 to 10. If government is implementing E-Health in Kerala, why are not details available with Government of Kerala but only with NRHM which is not Kerala Government’s? What kind of a government and what kind of an administration is that? Why are details not available in Secretariate, the seat of government? Are details of E Health available in Secretariate or not? Or is this dubiousness to hide facts or prevent contradictory information from being released from two sources, i.e. from Government and NRHM? These are the usual questions which rise in the minds of common man. We are certainly raising these issues of discrepancy with this department’s Appellate Authority. We are credibly informed that the bids mentioned in the beginning are being finalized on the extended date and things are being kept secret till then.

Shady Recruitment Procedures Adopted For Several E Health Posts.

Dubious advertisements appeared in equally dubious places, inviting applications to these posts. In one place, the How to Apply link leads to admissions section of the Manipal University and the CLICK HERE MORE DETAILS FOR THIS JOB link leads to http://dhs.kerala.gov.in/index.php/transfer where there is nothing about these posts. The DHS, NRHM and Arogya Keralam have nothing to show on these posts in their websites. It is an old trick- to advertise in places where no one will look and even if someone looks there, the links shall lead to nowhere. It is clear these posts are reserved for favourites, to be recruited through shadow agencies. And the posts do have handsome salary packages, in Kerala standards.

1. Finance Manager 50,000

2. Administration Manager 50,000

3. Technical Manager 50,000

4. Manager (Change Management) 50,000

5. Asst. Manager (Finance) 30,000

6. Asst. Manager (Admn) 30,000

7. Office Assistant 15,000

The following was one of the advertisements (or the only advertisement?) for these posts in e-health. It was online and it appeared in one of the shadiest of places:

‘Directorate of Health Services (DHS Kerala) hiring Managers & Office Assistant (CA/ ICWA, B Tech/ MCA, MBBS, B Com, Any Degree holders). Applications are invited for the following posts in the eHealth Project Management Unit (eHealth PMU) on contract/deputation basis. The contract basis appointment will be for a period of two years. Deputation basis appointments will be based on Government rules. Maximum age limit for posts 1 to 6 is 58 years and for post 7 is 40 years as on 01-01-2014. All the postings will be in Thiruvananthapuram.

Company Name: Directorate of Health Services (DHS Kerala)

Position: Managers & Office Assistant

Education: CA/ ICWA, B Tech/ MCA, MBBS, B Com, Any Degree

Experience: 3-10 yrs

Location: Kerala 

Applications may be send to State Mission Director, NRHM, General Hospital Junction, Trivandrum – 35 so as to reach the office on or before 12-03-2014.’

http://www.hirelateral.com/directorate-of-health-services-dhs-kerala-hiring-managers-office-assistant/

Who make money and who use government projects to do favours and repay favours received? So, that's why this great reluctance in conveying information under the right to information act. If what usually happens in Kerala happens in this project also, we will see that the relatives of the very authorities who were bound to give information out were undergoing the recruitment process. 

Updated as on 26 April 2014, 02:35 PM

So, as we feared, government do not know who the custodian of the 92 crores they gave is. The NRHM Directorate also does not know who the custodian of this amount is and how it is spent. See the reply from Smt. Vijayalekshmi P. Nair, Senior Administrative Assistant. We have to wait for months for an information which is available under the roof of a building adjacent to her own office building.

Updated as on 30 April 2014, 12:47 AM

Will continue.....Visit again

036. Now anyone rich to study abroad can practice in India without tests.

Centre plans to allow overseas Indian medical graduates to practice without tests.

By Pharma Biz

Our Bureau, New Delhi
Friday, January 04, 2013

Centre is planning to amend the Medical Council of India (MCI) Act to allow  Indian doctors, who have graduated abroad, to practice in India without the mandatory tests and clearance.

A bill in this regard has been drafted by the Union health ministry which plans to push it during the Budget session of the Parliament, Union Health Secretary P K Pradhan disclosed at the ongoing Global Healthcare Summit in Kerala recently.

Soliciting ideas and partnerships from the private sector, Pradhan said the Government was planning to improve the secondary care by upgrading the district hospitals. “There is a huge scope for partnership with the private sector in the areas like diagnostic services and labs. We will encourage district hospitals to run medical college campuses to augment the capacity in PG education and private players can help in this area,” he said at the CEO Forum in connection with the meet.

Speaking on the occasion, managing director of Sami Labs Dr Muhammed said his company was inspired by Ayurveda, the mother of all sciences. “We have developed two natural drugs, one for glaucoma and another for treating psoriasis first time in the country. Three other drugs are in the pipeline,’’ he said.

DM Healthcare chairman Dr Azad Moopen suggested that the forum should be utilized to firm up concrete partnership, to begin with the idea of setting up medical colleges in each district. To achieve the inclusive growth, he also called upon the government to think of levying Sin tax on alcohol and even on soft drinks to part finance a proper social insurance scheme, a release said.

“On improving the quality, the Government can do it easily. Instead of voluntary systems of accreditation, government should make it mandatory for all clinical establishments to have certificates like that from NABH,” he argued.

Device Controller of India Dr Eswara Reddy, Chairman of Medical Council of India Dr K K Talwar, Principal Health Secretary in Kerala Shri Rajeev Sadanandan, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences medical director Dr Prem Nair, president of American Medical Association Dr Jeremy Lazarus, Health Attache from US Embassy in Delhi Mr Stevan Smith, Dr Rajan Badwe of Tata Institute, Dr Philip Augustine of Lakeshore Hospital, Mr Bob Miglani of Pfizer, Dr K M Cherian of Frontier Healthcare, Dr Neal Simon of American University of Antigua, Dr M Sahadulla of KIMS, Tridvandrum and Dr Faizal Khan of NIMS were among those to attend the high-profile meet.

Link: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=73014&sid=1

Republished here by courtesy of Pharma Biz.Com

Comment: 

Some fathers will go to any extreme to make their nincompoop sons and daughters doctors, and they will get anyone’s help too. It was the dream of all low-grade medical students who study abroad to practice in India without undergoing the stringent tests and examinations of India- the hall mark of Indian medicine which placed Indian doctors in much demand abroad. Now that dream is being fulfilled by rich fathers who are in total control of authority.

034. Vigilance raid in Kerala Drug Control Offices.

Vigilance dept conducts raids in drug control offices across Kerala

By Pharma Biz

Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sleuths of the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) in Kerala conducted simultaneous raids in all the Assistant Drug Controllers’ and Drug Inspectors’ offices across the state on August 10 following informal complaints of rampant corruption against drug control officers, said a senior officer in the DVAC.

The vigilance officer said the department was receiving a slew of complaints from the drug traders from all the districts on alleged demand of bribery by drug inspectors and senior officials for renewal of the traders’ licences and for test reports from labs. According to him the drug control officials are deliberately delaying the services of the concerned offices for not giving them money as bribe by the traders.

He said his team has seized Rs.11000 from a drug inspector’s pocket during the raid. More cases of corruption are being investigated and surprise raids will be conducted further in all the offices, if needed.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, the officer of the anti-corruption department said all the problems pertaining to the price, quality, standard and availability of drugs are occurred in the state due to the inefficient way of operations of the drug control department. He said the department’s lackadaisical attitude is the main cause for the distribution of sub-standard quality drugs in the state.

However, he admitted that there is heavy work load in analytical laboratory of the department because of shortage of staff, but renewal of licences is delayed for collecting money from traders.

The vigilance officer, who led the team in the capital for raid, said a drug inspector asks for Rs.1000 per week from each medical store and senior officers demand a sum of Rs.5000 to find solutions for the traders’ problems with the government. When asked whether such cases of corruption were received against ayurvedic drug inspectors, he said there were some cases.

When contacted, state drugs controller CS Satheesh Kumar said there are limitations in the facilities of the drug testing lab, hence the test reports are getting delayed. Regarding renewal of licences, he said once the application is given for renewal, the trader can go on with his business until the department releases the renewed certificate and the delay does not affect his business.

Further he said there is shortage of drug inspectors and analysts in the department, and once the new lab under construction in Kochi is commissioned, all the problems will be solved.

The anti-corruption bureau has termed the operation as ‘Operation Tablet’. The officials inspected some retail shops to find out any irregularity and took stock of the situation.

This was the first time the vigilance conducted a raid in all the offices of the DC administration in the state. DVAC will submit a comprehensive report on the state wide raid to the government shortly for further action.

Link: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=70622&sid=1

Republished here by courtesy of Pharma Biz.Com

033. Do Not Build Drug Testing Labs So That Culprits Shall Escape.

Meagre allocation of funds by state govt holds up completion of Kochi drug testing lab

By Pharma Biz

Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
Thursday, March 21, 2013

The plan to commission the second drug testing laboratory of the Kerala drugs control department, being constructed at Ernakulam, is unlikely to be a reality in the near future owing to paucity of funds for the project. Even the completion of the building work is being held up. 

The state government has allocated only Rs.2 crore in the budget for three proposed drug testing laboratories including the Kochi lab. But, even for the completion of the on-going work at Kochi lab requires a minimum of Rs.6 crore, sources from the health department told Pharmabiz.

The department of drugs control had submitted proposals to the government with a plan outlay for Rs.24 crore for all the three labs. For completing the on-going project of Kochi Lab, it submitted a proposal for Rs.8 crore and to start work for the other two laboratories at Thrissur and at Kozhikodu, two more projects of the same amount were submitted.

Unfortunately, the state government did not accepted any of the proposals putting the upcoming project at Kochi into trouble. Due to scarcity of funds, the work of the lab cannot be completed as expected and commissioning of it was slated for May this year but will be delayed, it is learnt.

“The work of the Kochi laboratory is moving at a snail’s pace. We expected a minimum of Rs.6 crore to complete the work and commissioning of the lab planned in May this year. But government has sanctioned only a meagre amount for this project. This means that work for other two labs is also not able to start this year. The only hope is the diversion of unutilised funds from other departments towards this purpose and we are waiting for that,” said an official close to the department.

Currently, the department has only one drug testing laboratory situated close to the office of the department at Thiruvananthapuram and it has a capacity for testing 4000 samples per year. Whereas, the estimated capacity for the upcoming Kochi lab is 6000 samples. The total number of field staff collection is near about 300 samples per month. Due to lack of modern facilities and shortage of technical staff, all the samples can not be tested on time and delays the result for even one year. By the time, all the substandard or date expired drugs might have been sold out in the market. So, the state needs more drug testing labs with modern machinery in order to strengthen the regulatory mechanism, sources said.

Link: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=74398&sid=1

Republished here by courtesy of Pharma Biz. Com

032. NHRC issues notice to Kerala Health Department for causing eye sight losses.

NHRC issues notice to Kerala Health Department. 

By The Hindu
September 3, 2013

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to the Department of Health and Family Welfare of Kerala on reports that four persons lost their eyesight allegedly after undergoing cataract surgery in Thrissur Medical College.

A notice in this regard has been issued to the Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala to submit a report on the matter within four weeks, a National Human Rights Commission release issued on Tuesday said.

The notice was issued after the Commission took suo motu cognisance of a media report that four persons, who had undergone cataract surgery in Thrissur Medical College two weeks ago, lost vision in their right eye.

The Commission observed that the press report, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of right to health of the victims.

More than a dozen cataract surgeries were reportedly conducted at the Taluk hospital from July 22 to August 5 this year.

Link: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/nhrc-issues-notice-to-kerala-health-department/article5088855.ece

Republished here by courtesy of The Hindu

Comment: 

Read here soon about the notorious open air eye surgery camps in Kerala, which were convened for mere political popularity, resulting in eye sight loss to hundreds of good citizens, with no compensation payments or punishments.