“When I was made Kerala’s health minister in 2016, I was also a fresh hand. The public health sector in the state fares better than most others, and that is why we were able to effectively resist the Nipah outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic,” said KK Shailaja, ex-health minister, who was given the moniker ‘corona slayer’ for her work during her tenure between 2016 and 2021.
High life expectancy, low infant mortality, and good accessibility have long set Kerala’s public health infrastructure apart, she said. The veteran CPI(M) leader, who won several international recognitions, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which she famously declined, has always maintained that her success is not individual but institutional.
However, the very same ‘Kerala model’ has now come under the scanner, exposing the alleged chinks in its institutional armour.
In February 2026, controversy intensified after a pair of surgical forceps were found in the abdomen of 51-year old Usha Joseph, who underwent a hysterectomy five years ago. Protests broke out in front of the Alapuzha Medical College Hospital, and the issue snowballed after the chief surgeon, Dr Lalithambika, denied the charges and put the blame on work overload and staff shortage.
The Opposition was quick to catch on to the issue, and ever since, the alleged deterioration of Kerala’s public health infrastructure has been a major political target for both the UDF and the BJP.
At the centre of this crossfire is health minister Veena George, a journalist-turned politician, who has faced media hostility and the burden of her predecessor KK Shailaja’s legacy. In an altercation with protesting KSU members at the Kannur Railway station in February, Veena sustained injuries to her neck and hand. The incident spiralled into political mud-slinging after Opposition leader VD Satheesan launched scathing attacks on the LDF government, alleging that Veena faked the injury.
As Kerala gears up for a high-stakes Assembly battle on April 9, it is pertinent to unpack the controversies surrounding the health department, which is a prominent political marker of the incumbent LDF’s ten-year performance. More importantly, health being a question of fundamental sustenance, it is also crucial to examine whether this chaos has impacted voter trust in ways that could affect their candidate preferences.
Controversies and public trust
“I have read about several instances of medical negligence from recent times, and once, it was said that there are not enough scrub nurses in government hospitals. I was shocked,” said Lalitha, a retired Malayali nurse who served for decades in Tamil Nadu.
Scrub nurses are those nurses assigned to ensure that all the surgical instruments are intact before and after surgery. It has been reported that staff shortage often culminates in operating theatres having no specific scrub nurses, making the surgery prone to errors like the one that happened with Usha Joseph.
As a professional who has worked outside Kerala, she attests that the state is doing better than most others, but says that we cannot rest on these laurels.
“It is scary to read about the alleged lack of medicines and equipment. That recent fire in the ICU, for instance. It is an accident, yes. But that begs us to think if we can trust government hospitals to be responsible,” she added. Lalitha was referring to the unfortunate fire at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital in March, after a ventilator in the ICU burst into flames.
Several others, whom TNM spoke to, resonate with Lalitha.
When asked if such incidents reduce their trust in the government, some of them answered in the affirmative. Others reiterated how they mostly do not have an option, considering the rising cost of treatment at private hospitals.
Dr D Dhanuraj, Founder-Chairman of the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), said that the fundamental problem is how Kerala is still trying to use age-old solutions for evolving problems. “I think we lack a targeted approach for different sections of the population, and this, I believe, will show in the upcoming elections. When I say this, I am speaking about the hygiene, the beds, the quality of care, and other aspects as well. We also need to build a responsive system that reflects the health of the people as well as the environment,” he explained.
He also said that improving the quality of healthcare also means finding the resources for that. “All the governments, including the manifestos we see now, promise quite a lot without thinking about where to find funds. For example, to raise the token charge at a government hospital by a Rupee is a political challenge. But there are several middle-class and higher-class people who can pay that, which will bring huge money into the system. So, unless we manage to improve the system bureaucratically and administratively, and innovate models of finance, the lapses will stand out, putting the marginalised people at risk and causing such political storms,” he added.
Opposition’s attacks
“The Health Department will ask for a report and then sit on it. For example, take Harsheena or Vinodini; the government has not compensated for the lives of these ordinary people. Kerala’s health is on a ventilator,” said VD Satheesan, following the ventilator burst at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College in March.
He was referring to the case of KK Harsheena, from whose abdomen a surgical instrument was recovered post a C-section at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital, and 9-year-old Vinodini, whose forearm had to be amputated due to alleged negligence by junior doctors at the Palakkad government district hospital in October last year.
Calling the last ten-years Kerala’s ‘dark age’, Satheesan said that the health department dismisses systemic problems as isolated incidents.
Sunny Joseph, president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), has also been severely critical of the department. “People are rushing to private hospitals, but how can they afford it? The expenditure is really high, and many of them ask us to request that the hospitals reduce the bills. Are we lying? We are only speaking facts,” he told TNM.
He also added that when Veena George herself admits that there is a systemic failure, the government must address such lapses. “Whenever we bring these issues up, the government is not willing to address them,” he said.
The BJP has also severely criticised the LDF for the controversies surrounding the health sector. The party has been trying hard to make political inroads in Kerala during this Assembly poll, and it has left no stone unturned to bring down the state’s education and health sectors, which have been nationally recognised as thriving models.
However, Dhanuraj pointed out that controversies and debates are healthy, but when it becomes political, it ends up being a game of words.
“In any case, the LDF should be able to counter these allegations as well. The Opposition and the BJP have indeed been pulling the state down in a bid to pull down the LDF. But I still think that these issues persist and must be negotiated. If political pulling down can lead to good discourse and counters, I think it is fair,” he further said.
He also pointed out that even those criticising the LDF will not be able to meet the aspirations of the people when they come to power if they do not try to find the resources for it.
“Health is always about life and death, and hence, the lowest hanging fruit in a political economy. It is good that the system will always be under scrutiny, but there is little the minister or cabinet can do when a case of medical negligence happens. It is a reflection of how centralised and highly bureaucratic the system is. This will repeat no matter who comes to power if we do not revamp the system, addressing its fundamental issues,” he explained.
Veena George, who is caught amidst this crossfire, explained that in her experience, the system has slowly been moving forward and not collapsing. She alleged that the health department’s successes are intentionally suppressed by the media, preventing it from reaching more people.
‘I was deliberately targeted’
“There was a targeted attack both against the health department and me. I live in Pathanamthitta, and I can see the changes in the health centre here. We have evolved our own protocols for rare diseases, communicable diseases like Nipah, and we are spending almost Rs 1200 crore for free treatment every year. The parents of several young children are so happy that many of them try to tell society, but somewhere, the good aspects are prevented from reaching more people,” Veena George told TNM.
She also explained how the health department has been moving forward. One of the major achievements she cited was the comprehensive health policy, which unifies the earlier laws for north and south Kerala.
“We redefined health with a new Bill, the Kerala Public Health Act, 2023. We had search committees which met with people and discussed challenges. We recognised how the health of people is also dependent on the health of animals, birds, and the environment at large. So we also have a One Health policy, which looks at health comprehensively. We have public health committees at Panchayat levels, and people can report to this body if they have health or environment concerns, like polluted water bodies or faulty drainage. We also have committees at the district and state levels,” Veena said.
With respect to controversies about negligence, the minister said that all cases were heard, looked into, and sent for further investigation. She also pointed out that the volume of complaints from government hospitals stands at much lower levels compared to private hospital complaints– 47 from government hospitals and 600 from private hospitals.
The minister further explained that the government has eased the registration and assessment process for small hospitals and clinics under the Kerala Clinical Establishments Act, to sustain them in the face of tough competition from big private players.
“Every day we face new challenges. The error must not be less, it should be zero, that should be our aim. We have several things we can do better, and we will move forward with courage,” she said.
Veena also faces the peculiar burden of her predecessor KK Shailaja’s legacy. When asked, Shailaja said that the work was done collectively by the department and the LDF and not by her alone.
“Veena has been working very hard, and our health markers are still very good. There is no need for comparison with me,” she said.