thiruvananthapuram health minister veena george has convened a highlevel meeting to discuss the issues faced by the medical college hospital mch she has also sought a report from the hospital authorities on the immediate steps that have to be taken at the hospital on thursday night she had made a surprise visit to the hospital and had found that many of the health care workers on duty were not present at the hospital at that time she spent over three hours visiting all the wards and the casualty there the minister who reached the hospital around 1030 pm went straight to the casualty department where she interacted with the patients and the bystanders there she also spoke to the doctors on dutythe minister also verified the duty list to check whether all the health care workers were present in the hospital at that time but found that some of them were not present the minister made it clear that patients should be assured of immediate treatment and care and strict actions will be taken against those who are not present in the hospital at their duty time she asked the principal of the medical college to monitor the presence of employees on a regular basisthe minister visited the observation rooms wards and the new emergency department she also had firsthand information about the difficulties faced by the patients and bystanders who complained about the limitation of space available in the old emergency department the minister also directed to speed up the process of shifting the emergency department to the new wing