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AIIMS withdraws order from director on SOPs for MPs amid uproar
AIIMS director Dr M Srinivas recently wrote to the joint secretary in the Lok Sabha secretariat, YM Kandpal, regarding the standard operating procedures that were in place for the MPs, including providing a nodal officer to coordinate and facilitate medical care arrangements.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, on Friday withdrew with immediate effect an order to streamline treatment facilities for all sitting parliamentarians at the premier health facility.
The order, issued by newly appointed AIIMS director Dr M Srinivas, came amid massive uproar from doctors who slammed the move as "VIP culture".
Srinivas recently wrote to the joint secretary in the Lok Sabha secretariat, YM Kandpal, regarding the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that were in place for the MPs, including providing a nodal officer to coordinate and facilitate medical care arrangements.
They include SOPs for the outpatient department (OPD), emergency consultation and in-patient hospitalisation of members of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) had written to Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya seeking immediate revocation of the letter written by AIIMS Director Dr M Srinivas regarding medical care arrangements for sitting MPs in AIIMS.
In the wake of an uproar, the AIIMS, New Delhi, put out a tweet saying it has always had a “24x7 control room for co-ordination of medical care of patients from all walks of life”.
"Residents and faculty from Dept of Hospital Administration work here to ease logistics and expedite treat for poorest of the poor," it added in the tweet.
An earlier HT report quoted Dr Rohan Krishnan, president of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), as saying, “We have always been against VIP culture in hospitals, and we stand by that. It is disheartening that an institution like AIIMS is setting such a bad precedent for the country. Every patient in this country deserves good treatment, that includes an MP and also a homeless person.”
