IMA fumes after suspension of NMCH chief, warns of action

IMA’s national president Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh said he has written separate letters to Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan and chief minister Nitish Kumar, seeking their intervention to revoke the suspension order.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has challenged the Bihar government’s decision to suspend Dr Binod Kumar Singh, medical superintendent of Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), without giving him an opportunity to defend, and said it will take legal recourse if the government did not revoke its decision taken on Friday.

Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav also holds the health portfolio. (HT)

IMA’s national president Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh said he has written separate letters to Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan and chief minister Nitish Kumar, seeking their intervention to revoke the suspension order.

Deputy chief minister Tejasahwi Prasad Yadav, who is also state’s health minister, had suspended Dr Binod Singh on Friday, after inspecting the hospital and interacting with relatives of some patients the previous evening. Yadav was apparently dissatisfied with the manner in which the doctors were treating patients, lack of medicines and upkeep of the hospital.

“The minister should not have acted in the manner he has done. The additional chief secretary and the additional secretary, who were accompanying the health minister during the inspection of the hospital, should have at least advised the minister to seek an explanation from Dr Singh before suspending him. The government’s action is wrong and in bad taste,” Dr Sahajanand Singh told HT on phone from New Delhi.

“The IMA will seek legal redressal if the Bihar government does not revoke its decision,” he said.

Interestingly, Dr Binod Singh had earlier requested the government to relieve him from the post of the superintendent when there was shortage of oxygen during the peak of Covid-19 between April and May last year.

“Our hospital was not getting the requisite supply of oxygen. I had then told the government that dozens of patients could die due to scarcity of oxygen and the responsibility would be fixed on me. So, I should be removed as the superintendent. But the government did not heed my request then and asked me to continue,” said Dr Binod Singh.

“I have no lust for the superintendent’s post. But the manner in which it has removed me now is wrong, unjustified and unconstitutional. I will first request the government to reconsider its decision before knocking the doors of the judiciary,” he said.

Dr Binod Singh said ensuring repairs in the bathroom and any other infrastructure related issue were the mandate of the Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL), which was not under him. The BMSICL did not act even after repeated requests, he said.

“I had even flagged the issue of the hospital running out of intravenous fluids during the video-conferencing with senior health officials a couple of days back. We can provide only those medicines to the patients that the BMSICL makes available to us,” said Dr Singh.

Many relatives of patients had complained to Yadav that medicines were not available at the hospital and they had to buy them from open market. The minister was also surprised to find that non-dengue patients were kept in the same ward as dengue patients.

“It was a mistake to mix patients when we had separate isolation ward for dengue patients, but the responsibility of segregating patients was of the medicine department,” said Dr Singh.

Meanwhile, state BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said Yadav had abused and accused the doctor fraternity for which he should apologise.

“It was Tejashwi’s propaganda as a minister to go to inspect the NMCH. He had gone there for a photo opportunity. To suspend a sensible and senior doctor, who was a victim of Covid-19, and still did remarkable work during the over two years of pandemic, despite the lack of hospital infrastructure, smacks of his autocratic style of governance. The action is grossly wrong,” said Anand.

Dr Singh was suspended for alleged lapses in effective control of dengue, being careless in his work, disregarding departmental directives and lack of administrative competence, said the government order on the department’s website.