Even while mounting a strong defence against allegations of poor infrastructure in Kerala government hospitals, two government doctors sounded worried about one aspect -- stress and exhaustion.

At Manorama Hortus in Kochi on Friday, journalist and labour rights activist Rejimon Kuttappan, one of the speakers, reeled off CAG figures, incidents and news articles to show the sorry state of affairs in government hospitals at the session on the plight of the health sector in Kerala. At one point, he also got personal.

"I will not go to the government hospital at any cost. I will not take any of my dear ones there. I am afraid," he said. The sheer bluntness of his statement startled Dr P S Shahjahan, Professor and Head, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Government Medical College, Alappuzha and ENT Surgeon Dr M M Haneesh, who were present at the session. Both doctors admitted there is a severe staff shortage and that they expected the government to address the same.

"We still work based on the service rules formulated in the 1960s. There is a trend to glorify overwork. A doctor who works 24 hours is hailed a hero. We should stop doing that. Hours of work could affect judgment. There could be medical errors. We are under enormous stress," said Dr Shahjahan.

Dr Haneesh said that there should be prompt interventions in the secondary, tertiary and quaternary levels in terms of staff recruitment and fund inflow. If this doesn't happen, we face catastrophic health expenditure in private hospitals run by corporates. There should be proportionate investment in various levels like the government does for primary health care," said Haneesh.

Rejimon blamed it on misgovernance. "There is no point in celebrating ranks if you can't deliver the outcome of those achievements. There is a shortage of medicine, and equipment is being taken back because of non-payment. It is a result of poor governance," he said.