Surgical procedures at the Urology department of the Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital were stalled for a day on Thursday due to shortage of supplies after equipment suppliers insisted on the clearance of previous pending bills before resuming the supply.
Earlier, whenever shortage of supplies or equipment accessories occurred and the hospital development society (HDS) was unable to step in, patients would pool money and purchase the necessary equipment, which could then be used for many patients. This was one “practical” way in which the medical college was functioning on a day-to-day basis.
However, following a recent fiasco involving the Urology Head of the Department Haris Chirakkal when this method of “problem solving” came to be revealed, the government had issued a directive that patients should not have to collect funds to purchase equipment in public hospitals.
Flexible ureteroscope
The non-availability of a flexible ureteroscope, an equipment which costs close to ₹60,000, is what has resulted in the disruption of procedures in the Urology department now, with distributors insisting on the clearance of pending bills and the patients unable to pool money like earlier to purchase the equipment.
However, sources at the hospital said that over the past two days, the authorities had managed to come to an understanding with the distributors, following which they had promised to resume supplies soon.
“It takes a lot of ingenuity to resolve the day to day hassles in a hospital as large as the Thiruvananthapuram medical college, which caters to tens of thousands of patients. We are trying to streamline the HDS purchases and implement a running contract system for the yearly requirement of various departments so that these daily hassles can be avoided. The expert committee which looked into the purchase-related problems raised by Dr. Chirackal had suggested some overhauling of the system. But policy decisions will take time,” a senior official said.
Published – September 18, 2025 11:10 pm IST
