An incident in which artery forceps were found in the abdomen of a woman undergoing surgery at the Government Medical College Hospital in Alappuzha in 2021 was extremely serious and occurred due to non-compliance with established surgical safety protocols and standards and ineffective implementation of surgical safety checklist guidelines, the Kerala State Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA) said.
Health Minister Veena George on Friday placed the blame for the incident squarely on the doctors. She claimed that WHO guidelines for surgical safety were being implemented in all government hospitals and that it was clearly human error.
However, KGMCTA pointed out that the association submitted a comprehensive protocol on surgical safety to the government in 2024 to improve surgical safety standards, which the government failed to implement.
Key recommendations included mandatory implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist; a strict system of device counting – provision of one attending nurse and one floor nurse for each patient undergoing surgery; mandatory compliance with the “time-out” procedure; operating theater safety audits and clear documentation of accountability.
KGMCTA pointed out that thousands of surgeries are successfully performed in government medical colleges across the state every year. However, even isolated incidents like this can undermine public confidence in the health care system, the government warned.
It said significant deficiencies persisted in the system, including severe shortages of human resources, understaffing of medical schools, deficiencies in basic infrastructure and excessive operational burden. The government’s failure to address these systemic issues and blame every untoward incident on doctors is unfair and extremely disappointing, the doctors said.
KGMCTA said that at present surgeons and theater staff in government medical colleges are working under huge work pressure. When thousands of operations are performed, the absence of adequate nursing, technical and support staff to the prescribed standards has jeopardized patient safety.
Inside hospitals, patients who need to be moved for examinations or procedures should be transported strictly under the supervision of a nurse. In public hospitals in the state, this responsibility has been transferred to families – an extremely dangerous practice, according to doctors.
The government will need to increase human resources substantially above current levels to ensure patient safety. The KGMCTA demanded that the government implement the surgical safety protocol submitted by the organization one-and-a-half years ago, without dilution across the state.
Published – 20 Feb 2026 20:11 IST