The Hindu : Front Page : No antidote yet to doctors’ VIP duty

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No antidote yet to doctors’ VIP duty

Afshan Yasmeen

A year on, Government yet to set up team for protocol shift

Chief Minister not attending today’s function, but doctors will be on VIP duty
‘We have to go hungry and sleep in ambulances’

— FILE PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY

LONG HAUL: An ambulance with government doctors on board follows a VIP convoy.

BANGALORE: A year after Vice-President Hamid Ansari made it clear following a Bangalore visit that he was against the practice of posting government doctors on VIP protocol duty at the cost of poor patients’ treatment, the State Government is still dragging its feet on his advice to set up an exclusive team of doctors for the purpose.

Worse, government doctors end up being posted even to functions where the VIPs do not turn up.

For instance, a team of doctors from Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital has been assigned to be present at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bangalore on Thursday for a government-sponsored event to be attended by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

Though the Chief Minister, who is in New Delhi, has cancelled his programme, no such luck for the government doctors: they will be present at the function.

Consequently, they will be inaccessible to patients.

Regular

VIP visits and protocol duty regularly affect patient services in Bowring and Lady Curzon and Victoria Hospitals. “We have at least three visits by VIPs to the State every month resulting in many patients missing their appointments with specialists. But fortunately, we have not faced a situation similar to what happened in Chandigarh on Tuesday,” sources in Bowring Hospital told The Hindu.

A kidney patient died in Chandigarh after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s security allegedly prevented him from entering a hospital for two hours as Mr. Singh had come visiting.

G.T. Subash, Dean and Director of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) that manages five hospitals, including Bowring and Victoria, admitted that the State Government was yet to set up the VIP protocol team.

“We actually had more than 20 major surgeries posted for Thursday but because it happens to be a general holiday, they will be done on Friday. Otherwise, we would have been forced to cancel at least five surgeries because of shortage of doctors, especially anaesthetists,” sources in Bowring Hospital told The Hindu.

The Hindu’s report

On December 13, 2008, when Mr. Ansari was on a visit to Bangalore, The Hindu reported how patient services were being affected by VIP visits. Reacting to this, Mr. Ansari sent back the doctors posted for his duty and advised the State Government to set up a special VIP squad exclusively for protocol duty.

Sources said doctors from Bowring and Victoria had been repeatedly objecting to these VIP duties. “We often go hungry and have to sleep in the ambulance during outstation visits, ” said one, a veteran at such duties.

“While government protocol suggests that doctors from all State-run hospitals should be deputed for VIP duty, Bowring and Victoria hospitals are targeted always. That is because they are near the Vidhana Soudha,” he added.

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