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AMC doctors want panacea for interference Monday, October 15, 2001

BY RADHA SHARMA, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: What happens if a doctor in the emergency ward tells a group of over 15 people, who defying the security guard storm inside the emergency room late at night inquiring about a patient's health, that he will not see the patient until they all wait outside?

If the visitors turn out to be political heavy-weights like standing committee chairman Badruddin Sheikh and his friends, the doctor can get show-caused and transferred to another hospital, as it recently happened to a resident doctor of V S Hospital.

The incident should not be seen in isolation. Men in khadi have scared the daylight out of doctors in the AMC-run hospitals in the city, who confess to living under this constant threat of disciplinary action at the instigation of municipal corporators and other political bosses of the corporation.

"It's like an invisible sword hanging on your head. With so many patients streaming in and out of the hospital, you don't really remember who is a politician or his relative. And the moment you fail to pamper the ego of these netas, there goes your head," says one resident doctor.

Matters have come to such a pass that the Junior Doctors' Association (JDA) last week shot off a letter to the hospital superintendent and municipal commissioner expressing their inability to discharge their routine duties due to ever-increasing political interference.

"Political interference within the hospital premises is uncalled for. There is always a scare in the minds of the junior doctors of biased disciplinary action which happens at the instigation of some political interference. This should come to an end," says members of JDA in the letter.

The doctors also pleaded that the only relationship in the hospital should be that of a patient and doctor, and there should be no room for political interference.

Have things really got that bad? Doctors and nurses insist that things could not get worse. "It is as if the hospital has become a personal fiefdom of corporators and corporation big-wigs. Every now and then, there are requests for looking after this relative or that acquaintance. We should do our jobs or keep the political patients in good spirits," says another resident doctor.

Senior doctors too confess that one of the biggest nuisance of politicians is in getting their patients passed as free cases, or getting 'indents' done which entitle poor patients for free medicines.

"It is no exaggeration, almost 75 per cent of the cases will be those recommended by politicians. Poor patients no longer benefit in this hospital. The largesse is being passed on to the political vote-bank," says a senior doctor.

TNN too managed to get hold of a case recommended by standing committee chairman Badruddin Sheikh, where the patient, reportedly a relative of Sheikh, was admitted in the special room but was also given free medicines (which should ideally be given only to poor patients) from the general ward number 14!

When asked to comment on this apparent politicisation of hospital affairs, Sheikh gave a very different version of the incident with the resident doctor.

"I very politely asked the doctor how the patient was doing, but he refused to give treatment. I can understand, but what if he does this to common people. I thought that the incident should be brought to notice," said Sheikh.

About his recommended patient who got free medicines, he said, "Our relatives can get free treatment."

When asked who the relative was, he refrained saying, "I am in a meeting now. I will call you up and tell you later." That phone call never came.

News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]

 

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