Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: V Mohanan Nair Health in South Asia: Future of Kerala depends on its willingness to learn from past BMJ 2004; 328: 1497 [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Future of health sector in kerala - what should we do ?

Tonny V Veenith, Dr Vandana Menon   (21 June 2004)

Future of kerala health

Biju Joseph   (17 August 2004)

Future of health sector in kerala - what should we do ? 21 June 2004
Tonny V Veenith, SHO COUNTESS OF CHESTER HOSPITAL CH2 2AH, Dr Vandana Menon Send response to journal: Re: Future of health sector in kerala - what should we do ?	Kerala is one place in India with maximum literacy rate this is one of the reasons of the growth of health system there. But it is now facing a crisis due to the following reasons 1) Lack of accessibility of standard care to all parts of the state. 2) Due to the lack of a well functioning authority which coordinates public health sector in Kerala. 3) Impaired growth of government medical colleges which fails to reach their desired expectations. 4) Lack of set guidelines and Difficulty in coordination of referrals. 5) Lack of research in most medical colleges due to heavy clinical work. A remedy will be a concomitant growth of public and private sectors with regulation from the government .Also primary sector needs to be strengthened and improved to change the view “primary care is for the poor”. This will also need the utilization of available talent in state. Hopefully this will all be sorted in the comprehensive health policy Competing interests: Was working as a PRHO and as SHO in the health sector in kerala.
Future of kerala health 17 August 2004
Biju Joseph, PhD student Chennai- 600 006 Send response to journal: Re: Future of kerala health	The letter 'Health in South Asia: Future of Kerala depends on its willingness to learn from past.BMJ 2004; 328: 1497 is only one side of the story. The author has failed to understand the progress in medical field which has happened/ is happening in places like Chennai and Bangalore which are emerging as health care capitals not only for India but for many third world countries. Many private institutions in these places have shown how latest technologies like tele consultation could be used for improvement of health of rural population in India at a cheaper rate or free of cost supported by Indian space research organisation. Similarly Chennai is emerging as the cadaver organ tranplantation capital of India mainly due to the presence of private organisations and hospitals. It is the duty of Govt.of Kerala to ensure 'health'of the primary health centres to retain faith of the people in the system. Blaiming private sector for failure of goverment is not solving the problem. The govt. should find out ways to improve medical research in primary health centers by way of incentives for practitioners who will take research after their practice hours. Similary standardisation of quality guidelines for medical labs and X ray labs should be implemented at the earliest. Competing interests: None declared