The Pariyaram Protest Council has asked the government why it could not seek the services of experts in the health service or medical education departments. Kannur: The Kerala government has raised hackles by handing over the administration of the Pariyaram Medical College to a board that includes two leading doctors attached to private hospitals. Health minister K K Shailaja entrusted a board of control consisting of the district collector and the two doctors at a function held at the medical college on Friday.
Collector Mir Mohammed Ali, Dr V G Pradeep Kumar and Dr C Raveendran have been asked to look after the administration of the college until a new society was formed to run the college that was taken over by the government.
Dr Raveendran, who retired as the principal of the Kozhikode Government Medical College in 2015, is now serving as the medical superintendent of the WIMS (Wayanad Institute of Medical Science) Medical College. Dr Pradeep Kumar, a former state president of the Indian Medical Association, is a senior consultant in neurology at the Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode.
Though both the doctors hold impeccable credentials, critics have raised doubts about the propriety of putting private doctors in key positions in a government-run medical college. The Pariyaram Protest Council has asked the government why it could not seek the services of experts in the health service or medical education departments.
Dr Pradeep Kumar earned MBBS and MD from the Kozhikode Government Medical College before pursuing DM from the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. He is the vice-president of the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council.
Dr Ravindran holds an MBA degree in human resources.
District Congress Committee president Satheesan Pacheni said that the inclusion of two outsiders in the board of control was a ploy by the ruling CPM to protect its interest in the hospital’s affairs. He challenged the government to come clear on its decision to choose the private doctors even though it could select from a number of expert in the government service.
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