It was pointed out at the meeting that the Health department does not even have enough human resources to continue the services currently being provided.
Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association has decided not to cooperate with the working arrangement order issued by the Kollam District Medical Officer (DMO), reshuffling doctors in Kollam district to provide 24 x 7 specialty care services at Punalur taluk hospital, till the government can offer better clarity and issue clear guidelines on how it was planning to implement the initiative when the State health services are struggling because of insufficient human resources.The government had earlier announced that it will pilot its initiative to provide round-the-clock specialty services in secondary hospitals in Pulanur taluk hospital, following which the Kollam DMO had issued orders pulling out doctors from various institutions in Kollam and reshuffling them to enable the 24 x 7 service provision at Punalur.An emergency meeting of the State Committee of KGMOA held online on Tuesday (August 25, 2026) pointed out that there are 799 vacancies of doctors in the health service at present, making it totally impractical that round-the-clock service provision can be made possible through just working arrangements, without new post creation.Out of the 799 vacancies, 300 are in the specialty cadre, 476 in the general cadre and 23 in the administrative cadre.It was pointed out at the meeting that the Health department does not even have enough human resources to continue the services currently being provided. KGMOA ‘s State committee urged the Government to implement the decision only after filling the existing vacancies and creating the required speciality-cadre posts for the stay-duty system.Need adequate staffKGMOA also pointed out that the government create adequate posts of casualty medical officers and emergency physicians and that the emergency wings in government hospitals are strengthened“At present, what is urgently required is that the government equip all hospitals to provide casualty services round-the-clock. There are busy hospitals where at least two casualty Medical Officers are required to keep the system running. In some hospitals, in the absence of CMOs, specialist doctors end up working in casualty all night, with the result that his OP clinics next day are affected. This is something that we have been pointing out since long but the government does not seem to understand,” pointed out PK Sunil, President of KGMOAKGMOA stated that doctors do not work in isolation and that more pharmacy, lab technicians, nurses and nursing assistants would also need to be posted before round-the-clock service provision can become a reality.The Health department rules mandate that there should be at least seven doctors in a specialty, in order to provide 24-hour service. There should be at least four doctors in a specialty in order that one doctor can take on-call duty (stay duty).Serious imbalanceKGMOA noted that there is a serious imbalance in the number of sanctioned posts in district and general hospitals across the State. Hence, standardisation of staffing patterns must be undertaken urgently in all district and general hospitals.At present, government medical colleges are already providing round-the-clock medical services, including that of specialists. KGMOA has decided to ask the government to do a comparative study so that the necessary infrastructure and staffing pattern that are necessary to provide 24 x 7 services in an institution can be assessed. Published - August 25, 2026 06:54 pm IST
