The Health Department had proposed covering general medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, anaesthesia, paediatrics and gynaecology. It later said specialist consultations would run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with teleconsultations overnight. But the staffing needed for either model has not been secured at Punalur, and plans to extend the service to Tirur and Nilambur have also stalled.
The Kerala Government Medical College Officers’ Association says the shortage is structural: 799 doctor posts are vacant in the Health Service, including 300 specialist positions. Its president, P.K. Sunil, rejects the claim that doctors are resisting the plan to protect private practice, arguing that moving specialists from peripheral hospitals can trigger local opposition and leave those facilities short-staffed.
Health Department officials have separately pointed to resistance to redeploying doctors and political pressure to return staff to their home institutions. The competing explanations have not changed the immediate shortfall. The department has sent the government a proposal to create 1,120 specialist posts and 520 casualty medical officer posts. In an earlier round, it secured 202 of the 1,520 posts it had sought, after prolonged negotiations.