Maladies ail civic healthcare system
On World Health Day, TOI Finds That Doctors Are Under The Scanner For Corruption ..TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: All is not well with the civic healthcare set-up. Bribes, administrative lethargy and more-thanpermissible foreign trips are some of the maladies afflicting the system, say sources.
A senior doctor who asked housemen to pay up to Rs 20,000 for postings, another who usurped a junior doctors invite to a neighbouring country, and yet another who changed a candidates confidential report at the behest of a bureaucrat are some of the shining examples that the BMC has to offer on the occasion of World Health Day, which was observed on Monday.
The biggest scandal that is brewing in the civic medical halls at the moment is an inquiry against the deputy dean of Sion Hospital, Dr N Barse, for taking sums up to Rs 20,000 from housemen for postings. Sion Hospital acting dean S Merchant has filed his report and so has the Yeolekar committee that was instituted to investigate the case. Both the reports are with me and I will shortly issue a combined report, said additional municipal commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye.
While sources claim that payoffs by poorly paid housemen are rampant in BMCs 16 smaller hospitals located in the suburbs, the officials at the headquarters maintain that they havent heard of a single complaint. One houseman paid Rs 35,000 for a posting in the orthopaedic department, said a doctor from one of the suburban hospitals located in the western suburbs. The student-doctor who is desperate for hands-on practice is unlikely to complain, he added.
It is not as if the BMC babus dont at all take action against errant health officials. In February, one of the seniormost civic health officials was asked to take up voluntary retirement after a series of excesses came to light. Not only had he crisscrossed across the globe for various seminars within one year, most often he would leave for the trip even before his leave was sanctioned. Once, when a junior doctor applied to him for permission to go to a foreign seminar, he too managed to wrangle an invite, said a senior civic official who didnt want to be identified.
In one instance, he didnt apply to the MPSC for over five years after a post fell vacant. An ad-hoc arrangement for a year was internally made, but it continued for over five years. Such administrative lethargy cannot be overlooked, said the civic official. The official concerned was read out the riot act: either take voluntary retirement or the BMC will institute an enquiry. The official gave in and has since moved to a northern state with a plum job.
At the moment, BMCs seniormost health official in the hospital section, Dr M E Yeolekarwho holds the positions of dean of KEM Hospital, director as well as joint municipal commissioner (health)is under a cloud. An internal audit report in October 2007 showed that a contractor was allowed to run a canteen in Sion Hospital till last March though he didnt contribute anything to the BMC coffers, resulting in a loss of around Rs 17 lakh to the BMC. Dr Yeolekar, who was the dean of Sion Hospital at that time, has been cited for letting the canteen contractor get away without paying.
Dr Yeolekar has another spot of worry with the BMCs legal department reportedly reviewing a matter against him. A source pointed out that Dr Yeolekar had allegedly changed the confidential record of a doctor from the forensic medicine department albeit on the behest of a senior bureaucrat.
On Monday, Dr Yeolekar said that partial payments had been made by the canteen contractor. Regarding the remaining payment, the civic legal department has decided on the future course of action, he said. Asked about the confidential report being touched up, he denied it.
Gajbhiye, too, pooh-poohed the allegations against Dr Yeolekar. In the first instance, why should the BMC lose any money over a canteen contract? We give the contractor a place to run the canteen and subsidised electricity and water. However, if there has indeed been some issue here, we will take action, said Gajbhiye. He also added that he had not heard about any confidential report being changed.
Apart from charges of corruption, there also have been charges of insensitivity against men and women who hold high posts. There is the case of a dean of a civic hospital interviewing a candidate from the reserved post for a post in the open category. It is permitted by the government of India rules for reserved candidates to apply in the open category, but the dean actually asked the candidate why he hadnt applied in the reserved category which had many vacancies, said the source about the incident that took place in 2007.
Earlier, in 2005, five senior women doctors from Sion Hospital had alleged gender bias and workplace harassment against their then dean Dr Yeolekar.