Sanjay Gandhi Hospital chief removed over medicine crunch

NEW DELHI: The medical superintendent (MS) of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in northwest Delhi’s Mangolpuri was changed on Wednesday, hours after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal shot off a letter to the lieutenant governor demanding removal of the current MS for failing to ensure availability of medicines and consumables.

Dr P S Nayyer, a medicine specialist, has been appointed the new MS. “I took over as MS this (Wednesday) evening,” he told TOI. Nayyer said steps would be taken to improve the infrastructure of the hospital and ensure availability of medicines.

On May 25, Kejriwal had found several deficiencies in the hospital during his surprise inspection. “I spoke to many patients. They told me that the hospital was in a mess. Medicines and consumables are not available. Many contract employees have not been paid their salary for over nine months. When confronted, the MS had no answer,” the Kejriwal wrote to LG on Wednesday.

He expressed surprise over the inaction against the MS despite the orders for his removal. “This man must be very powerful and well connected to first get posted as MS and then continuing (in the post) despite the CM’s directive,” the letter read.

Before this, Kejriwal had written to the chief secretary to conduct regular inspections in hospitals and ensure that all medicines and consumables were available. He asked the CS to explain why vendors had not been paid, which is reportedly affecting availability of drugs and consumables in the state-run hospitals.

A recent audit by the government revealed that several big hospitals, including Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in east Delhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital in west Delhi, did not have half the medicines in stock.