SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 23: The incident of Hazaribag Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC) Prerna Dikshit abusing Dr Vishal, a senior doctor at the Hazaribag medical college, has shocked teachers and doctors of the medical colleges in the state.
While expressing resentment, an office-bearer of the Jharkhand Health Services Association (JHSA), requesting anonymity said that this is not the first time after the creation of Jharkhand that a doctor has been attacked. He added that the medical college teachers have become a soft target of administrative officers and MLAs in the last 23 years.
Last month, Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari directed his supporters to bring the civil surgeon dragging and the Hazaribagh DDC executed that with a teacher of a medical college, he added.
Former IMA national vice president Dr Ajay Kumar Singh said that the Hazaribag medical college incident was unfortunate and the administrative officer had broken the law.
“There is no alternative to a doctor. An IAS officer can appoint four policemen but they can’t treat the patients. This incident will send the wrong face of the state ahead of the visit by a team of G-20 to Ranchi,” said Dr Singh.
The former national president said that is why no senior doctor comes to Jharkhand and the chief minister and ministers have to go to Hyderabad or Chennai for treatment.
Notably, the assault on medical college teachers in the recent past was first noticed in 2011 when Baghmara MLA Dhulu Mahto assaulted the then Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH) superintendent Dr Arun Kumar in the hospital. No action was taken against him.
In 2013, the then health minister Rajendra Prasad Singh allegedly misbehaved with the then Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital Jamshedpur superintendent Dr SS Prasad in front of faculty members and health staff during an inspection. Shocked, Dr Prasad fell sick just after the incident and died the same day in the hospital, recalled a doctor.
The confrontation between a medical college teacher and an administrative officer rocked the state in 2006. The then superintendent of PMCH Dhanbad Dr Geeta Verma stopped the then deputy commissioner (DC) Beela Rajesh from interfering in hospital activities.
A retired teacher recalled DC Beela Rajesh used to visit the hospital often and called the superintendent for discussion. Rattled by undue interference, Dr Verma refused to hold a meeting with the DC and shot off a letter to the health department about it.
The upset DC held up the salary payment of superintendent Dr Verma, who, in turn, issued a notice directing doctors not to talk with her (Beela Rajesh). Finally, the principal secretary of health had to intervene and DC Beela Rajesh had to calm down.
A similar confrontation also took place between the then RIMS Ranchi administrator Pooja Singhal (IAS) and Inspectors of the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 2007-08. Pooja Singhal was then the administrator of RIMS. When the MCI team came for an inspection, Singhal said being the administrator, only she would answer all the questions from the MCI Inspectors. However, the MCI team said they would talk only with faculty members. The team returned without conducting an inspection of RIMS.
Since the issue of increasing the MBBS seats in RIMS was pending, the then chief secretary intervened and requested a senior doctor of Ranchi to persuade the MCI team to visit again. The MCI Inspectors agreed on the condition of removing Pooja Singhal from the campus. She went out and thereafter the MCI team conducted the inspection.
