Hospitals skip govt order, fall prey to thefts

The rise in thefts in west Delhi government hospitals has caught the health department off guard. The modus operandi and the nature of thefts are identical in all the three hospitals.

The rise in thefts in west Delhi government hospitals has caught the health department off guard.

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The modus operandi and the nature of thefts are identical in all the three hospitals.

“We have appointed inquiry officers in all the cases and have asked for reports at the earliest,” said Kiran Walia, Delhi health minister. “We have to get to the root of these corrupt practices and fix accountability.”

Sources said the reason behind the rise in corruption and thefts in government hospitals is the Delhi government’s failure to implement a Health Ministry order dated January 6, 1997, which prevented people from holding sensitive positions in hospitals for more than two years.

The order states: “It has been decided that no one shall remain in sensitive departments like stores, finance etc for more than two years at a time.”

The order also instructs the medical superintendents of all hospitals to furnish details of rotational transfers of staffs in stores to the Directorate General of Health Services on April 1 every year.

The order was passed after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) unraveled a corruption nexus in the government hospitals.

It was found that one former employee of government hospital, in collusion with a medical officer, was involved in rigging medical supply orders.

Even in the case of west Delhi’s Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, the doctor in-charge of purchase department, the pharmacist in-charge of the hospital store and the sister in-charge of operation theatre stores (where the thefts took place) haven’t been changed or rotated in six years.

So far, no Delhi government hospital follows a transfer policy for these sensitive posts. “I am aware of this problem and we are trying to find a solution at the earliest,” said Walia.

“We are already in the process of changing the members in the Central Procurement Agency, where all medical supplies come. We will also ask the medical superintendents to ensure rotation,” she said.