Sushruta official gets the boot

Medical Superintendent of Sushruta Trauma Centre Dr Yadu Lal has been removed after two surprise inspections by the Delhi health department found the hospital in a mess, reports Jaya Shroff Bhalla.

Medical Superintendent of Sushruta Trauma Centre (STC) Dr Yadu Lal has been removed after two surprise inspections by the Delhi health department found the hospital in a mess.

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“Exigencies sometimes demand that we move officers from one place to the other. We have been thinking of changing the existing medical superintendent for quite sometime but we are yet to find a suitable replacement,” said Delhi health minister Kiran Walia.

Dr Lal refused to comment, but sources in Delhi government said he had been asked to join the Directorate of Health Services in Karkardooma.

Dr Manju Mehra, the additional MS of Lok Nayak Hospital, will take over charge till somebody else is appointed.

Health Minister Walia was the first one to go one a surprise inspection on May 12, when she visited the hospital late in the evening.

Health secretary JP Singh followed it up with a second inspection last week, and found the situation to be the same, if not worse.

“We were shocked to find that the CT Scan machines were not functioning, the lone neurosurgeon’s contract was over and was never renewed, they had no radiologist and shocking still was the fact that their blood bank’s licence had expired,” said Walia.

The minister had asked for a detailed explanation and possible solutions to revamp the health services in a week’s time.

For failing to comply with instructions, Lal was shifted on Tuesday.

Walia is now looking at revamping services at the trauma centre, “such that it at least self-sufficient.”

“To start with, we are looking to hire a neurosurgeon, pathologists and also a makeover of MRI and CT Scan machines. The idea is to make the centre functional as early as possible,” she said.