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| Patient-care affected; Surgeons protest, Seek appointment with CM | | Lobbyism hits surgeries at SKIMS | | Early Times Report
srinagar, Oct 31: Surgeries at Kashmir's sole tertiary care hospital, the SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura have been badly affected for the past around a month, following "lobbyism" of medicos in the hospital.
Apprehending a threat to the patient care due to delay in conduction of surgeries at his super-specialty hospital, some of the top surgeons including heads of the various departments have sought a formal appointment with Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti who is also the Chairperson of the SKIMS Governing Body. Member Parliament, Muzaffar Hussain Beg is also understood to be in the know of the matter.
Sources said an "influential" surgeon has emerged as a bone of contention among the surgeons. Sources said this surgeon, who was among the favorites with the previous Omar Abdullah regime and was allowed to "enjoy months of vacations in London at the expense of the state exchequer", has again wielded influence in the hospital.
This time, the surgeons said, he enjoys proximity with the Director SKIMS, who has empowered him to head a "self styled" board which decides on "when to undertake surgeries and how."
Officials said though this "generalist surgeon" of Oncology is not specialist in any surgeries, he has been asked to decide on sensitive surgeries, which are to be conducted by specialist surgeons.
"How can a surgeon who has no specialization in any particular surgery be made to head a so called board which will decide on when the surgeries need to be undertaken and how? This is ridiculous," the surgeons said.
They said it was "illegal and illogical" to make one surgeon decide about surgeries he has no knowledge of. "We cannot have red-tapism in conducting surgeries where a file will lie on the table of some bureaucrat for days… Here every seconds count in treating patients," the surgeons explained.
They said the "influential surgeon" was misusing his position to settle scores with his colleagues, who a few years ago had supported his proposed ouster from the hospital over charges of having enjoyed yearlong vacations in Europe at the expense of the state exchequer. He was subsequently, however, salvaged by the then Chief Minister Omar
Abdullah, who enjoys good relations with the surgeon. As a result of this "revenge politics", the doctors who don't acknowledge the "interference" of this influential surgeon are made to wait, while those who have "sworn alliance" to him are given free space to undertake surgeries.
Sources said the "influential" medico was unduly creating hindrances in surgeries by making them "wait for hours or days." Hospital records reveal that recently this "influential surgeon" booked operation theater to undertake a surgical procedure which takes "no more than an hour" but ended up keeping the theater occupied for the full day only to "give pain to his rival lobby".
"He had booked the theater for Feeding Jejunostomy, which is a small procedure taking a maximum of one hour. But in reality he went ahead for gastrectomy, which took around eight hours," the official sources said.
But this "dirty lobbyism" is coming at the cost of patient care, while patients and their attendants have been holding protests in delay over conduction of proposed surgeries.
With patient care being a causality of lobbyism, a team of around 20 surgeons last week rushed to the office of Director SKIMS to register their protest. Sources said the doctors told the Director that his decision to keep unbridled powers to the influential medico was against the medical ethics.
This resulted in a heated argument between the two parties. But the meeting had to be aborted midway when all of a sudden Member Parliament Muzaffar Hussain Beg entered the Director's chamber and delegation of surgeons was asked to leave as some "special meeting" was to be held.
Meanwhile the surgeons of SKIMS have approached Chief Minister's Secretariat for an appointment with her before the durbar opens in Jammu.
Despite repeated attempts the Director SKIMS could not be contacted for comments. When contacted a senior official while admitting the issue said "basically SKIMS is getting rejuvenated and thus acclimatization takes time." "Things will be in order soon," he added. |
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