Thiruvananthapuram medical college scrambles for explanation after Urology head’s social media lament

A Facebook post by the Head of Urology at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, lamenting over his helplessness and inability to provide the best of care to his patients because of systemic issues, has hit headlines in the State, with the college authorities scrambling to give their version of the story and dismissing the social media post as a “temperamental outburst”.

In his post, Harris Chirakkal penned his anguish over having to apologise red-faced to a 23-year-old boy – who was to undergo a scheduled endourology procedure on Friday – for cancelling his surgery at the eleventh hour.

Dr. Chirakkal wrote that he was forced to postpone the procedure as the equipment required for the same was unavailable at the hospital, even though his request for purchasing the equipment had been pending with the hospital development society (HDS) for months.

He said that he was putting his apology before the public because he was aware of how much the poor depended on this large public sector hospital for affordable care and the hardships they underwent to find money for care (some of the procedures are charged a user fee by the HDS). He wrote that though he was committed to providing the best of care to his patients, the red tape and bureaucratic harassment was getting the better of him.

He said that despite heading a speciality department, he did not have any purchasing power to ensure the availability of necessary equipment in his department and was forced to be at the mercy of many administrative powers that be. He penned that he was so dejected that he did not care about the consequences of his open outburst.

Authorities say

However, with the post making media headlines, the Director of Medical Education (DME), the Principal, and the Superintendent sought to explain on Saturday that Dr. Chirakkal was overreacting and that his post was intended to malign the reputation of the oldest medical college in the State. They explained that equipment was purchased by the HDS as and when HoDs put up purchase requests. However, a single procedure had to be postponed on Friday because of the sudden malfunctioning of an equipment and it was a technical issue which delayed the purchase of the same.

The DME said that an explanation would be sought from Dr. Chirakkal about his social media post. The viral post was later removed by Dr. Chirakkal as the issue escalated, but not before it was shared widely on social media.

Senior medical college officials confided that these issues were happening because of the outdated rules and procedures which insisted that any purchase above ₹1 lakh in medical colleges has to be cleared by the District Collector.

“In a major tertiary care centre, where complex cases and procedures are taken up round the clock, such outdated procedures for equipment maintenance and purchase are an impediment to the efficient day-to-day functioning of the hospital. The government and the administration should be correcting these anomalies instead of blaming doctors for being ‘emotional,” a senior doctor said.