Surgeon, RMP arrested for ‘unnecessary appendicitis surgeries’

The Korutla police arrested surgeon Tatipamula Suresh Kumar and RMP Ganesh on Tuesday night on the charges of unnecessary appendicitis surgeries on gullible rural masses of Kathalapur mandal.

Jagtial DSP Rajendra Prasad said that following a complaint lodged by Narsavva of Tandriyal village of Kathalapur mandal, the Kathalapur police investigated the case and arrested surgeon Suresh Kumar and RMP Ganesh and produced them before the Jagtial court. They were remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

Following a news item ‘Doctors fleece gullible rural masses in Karimnagar’ published in these columns on April 4, the District Medical and Health Department conducted a thorough inquiry into the unnecessary appendicitis surgeries conducted in Kathalapur mandal, and found that 583 surgeries were performed in one mandal alone. Indian Media Association (IMA) State anti-quackery chairman B.N. Rao demanded that the DM&HO should be streamlined to check and ensure that the private medical practitioners follow certain ethics while treating the patients. “Several non-doctors are running hospitals in various parts of the district in connivance with the Medical and Health Department, he alleged. Speaking to press persons here on Wednesday, he charged that there was another big racket of ambulance services in the district where the ambulance operators shift the patients to private hospitals to earn commission instead of shifting them to Arogyasri-linked hospitals and government hospitals. Stating that some doctors were bringing disrepute to the medical profession by resorting to unethical practices, he also said that the RMPs of Kathalapur mandal colluded with the doctors and encouraged unnecessary surgeries.

An inquiry finds that 583 such surgeries were performed in one mandal alone