After a break of almost a month, the tussle between health minister Anubumani Ramadoss and AIIMS director P Venugopal has begun again.
Director suspends cardio department head who is close to health minister Ramadoss
NEW DELHI: After a break of almost a month, the tussle between health minister Anubumani Ramadoss and All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) director P Venugopal has begun again.
On Thursday, Venugopal decided to remove Sampat Kumar, head of the cardiology department, who is reportedly close to the minister, for “medical negligence”.
A probe panel found on Friday operation records of the 12-year-old boy who died in March this year due to alleged negligence by Kumar. But it is yet to be ascertained whether Kumar is guilty or not.
Last week, Kumar had levelled the same charge on his junior AK Bisoi, a close confidant of Venugopal.
Sources said Kumar's removal is in retaliation to the action against Bisoi and has been taken without informing the health ministry or the AIIMS governing body, thus making it invalid.
The timing of the removal is also questionable. To make matters worse for AIIMS, Kumar is number three in the hospital's hierarchy and is tipped to be the next director.
“I am being victimised. The director is harassing me. Is this a joke? Action is being initiated against me after seven months. If I was at fault, the hospital should have acted then, not now,” said Kumar.
“I was the whistleblower against a doctor whose negligence caused the death of a 75-year-old patient. I am being punished for speaking the truth,” he said.
Annop Misra, director and head, department of diabetes and metabolism, Fortis Group, said: “In the past one year, the standard of clinical services and research at AIIMS has gone down. The hospital should take a serious look at this aspect.”
Misra was associated with AIIMS for a long time but decided to quit last year due to the ongoing power struggle.
“The deterioration in health services is so startling that AIIMS is no longer a speciality hospital. It is functioning like any other general hospital,” he said.
Meanwhile, faculty members of AIIMS said the medical negligence case against Kumar has been in the air for the past seven months but no action was taken because it is impossible to study the records of all patients who are admitted to the hospital.
“The case was in the air for a long time but reports came to us only last month and we demanded an inquiry against Sampat Kumar,” said Vinod Khaitan, president AIIMS faculty association.
The doctor said since the 12-year-old boy belonged to a nomadic tribe in Ladakh, the hospital could not trace his family members.
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