Refusing to bury the hatchet against All India Institute of Medical Sciences Director P Venugopal, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday charged him with failing administratively due to which the premier institute was in "chaos" with SC/ST students facing "discrimination" and morale of people working there going down.
"There is an absolute chaos in AIIMS. Dr Venugopal is an eminent doctor but as far as administration is concerned, he has no clue what is happening in AIIMS. The institute is being run by a coterie of four to five junior doctors," Dr Ramadoss told reporters in Delhi.
Pointing out that Dr Venugopal was called by the SC/ST Commission four times but did not appear before it, the minister accused the AIIMS director of not respecting and responding to the decisions taken at the AIIMS Governing Body's meetings which was again "unfortunate".
Dr Ramadoss pointed out that as the AIIMS president, he had suspended the doctor who had left a screw in the body of a patient resulting in his death, but the doctor was still working at the institute and causing a lot of risk to many other patients.
On being asked for his reaction on the Delhi high court revoking the suspension of the concerned doctor, Dr Ramadoss said the doctor was suspended on the ground of gross medical negligence which had resulted in the death of a patient.
However, he said he could react on the issue only after going through the details of the judgment.
Speaking about the Thorat Committee report that highlighted gross discrimination against SC/ST students in AIIMS, he said the hospital administration had failed to remove it.
The health minister claimed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Union Cabinet was aware of the state of affairs in AIIMS.
Asserting that he had no ego clash with Dr Venugopal, the health minister said it was the media's creation.
He expressed his annoyance at the fact that despite doubling the amount of funds to AIIMS, no research activities were going on in the institute. There was a lot of "interference or lack of it" in AIIMS resulting in the present mess, he said.
Pointing out that the institute was getting a lot of subsidies, he lamented that the country was not getting the benefit as no research was going on and most of the students from AIIMS were going abroad.
The undergraduate students were paying just Rs 210 per annum as fees as against Rs 1 lakh by those in the Vardhman Medical College at Safdarjung Hospital. But 54 per cent of AIIMS students go abroad of which 85 per cent go to the US, he informed.
Due to this reason he had told the students at the convocation ceremony to stay within the country and help the poor and needy here, he added.
