Kochi Feb 23 Senior Congress leaders on Monday mounted a sharp attack on Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan government over recurring allegations of medical negligence, rejecting the state minister's contention that such incidents are "isolated cases".
The criticism came after the Congress General Secretary and Alappuzha Lok Sabha member visited Usha Joseph, a native of his constituency, who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Ernakulam, after a pair of scissors that was allegedly left inside her abdomen during a surgery at Vandanam Medical College Hospital in 2021 was removed last week.
Addressing the media, he said inquiry committees announced in the wake of medical negligence cases were often meant to whitewash lapses rather than fix accountability.
"Committees are declared whenever such incidents surface, but no meaningful action follows their reports. If those responsible for medical negligence are not held accountable, are the victims to be treated as the culprits?" he asked.
Venugopal described the inquiry findings as "strange" and said the government should admit mismanagement and take corrective steps instead of attempting to deflect criticism by invoking caste and gender narratives.
"No one is trying to portray government hospitals in a bad light. But the system meant to prevent the recurrence of such lapses has completely failed," he said, adding that Kerala’s health sector was in the grip of negligence.
Repeatedly terming recurring incidents as isolated cases, he said, was untenable.
"It is the Health Department that needs treatment," he remarked.
Leader of the Opposition V.D.Satheesan echoed similar concerns, ridiculing the various Ministers’ assertions that everything happening in the health sector was "isolated episodes".
"If the Minister’s inquiry reports are compiled, they would run into several volumes. We would have to build a large hall just to keep those books," he said, in a sharp swipe targeted at the journalist turned Health Minister Veena George, at the frequency of probes ordered after adverse incidents.
Congress leaders said that recurring lapses could not be brushed aside with routine announcements of inquiries, maintaining that public confidence in the state’s health infrastructure could be restored only through transparency, accountability and systemic correction.
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