From Kashmir Images

Govt finally turns attention to Valley’s Cayman Islands (SKIMS)

Director responsible for all mess in SKIMS: Health Min

Srinagar, Nov 05: Having been sort of Cayman Islands, government finally seems to have woke up to divest Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) of its notoriety as an “island of unaccountability”.

Obviously for the SKIMS bosses, for whom this premier tertiary-care hospital has been a financial heaven, reconstitution of its Governing Body with Health Minister as Vice-chairman, is causing big heart-aches.

But the State Health Minister Ch. Lal Singh, who will now be the Vice-Chairman of the Governing Body seems determined to “change the picture of this premier institute once he will takes over.”

“I know everything that is happening in SKIMS. The present director has created a mess there and he is feeling uneasy after he came to know about the government decision appointing me the Vice-chairman of the Governing Body,” local news agency CNS quoted Lal Singh as saying.

“Once I am there I will show all how to run the affairs of SKIMS. There is no accountability in SKIMS and patients as well as attendants are being harassed in the name of security. Despite ban on private practice, the doctors posted in SKIMS indulge in underground private practice. I will take all the erring doctors to task,” Singh said.

Accusing incumbent Director SKIMS of “loot and mismanagement”, Health Minister said he will not allow anyone to “loot the Jammu and Kashmir’s top medical institute”.

“I have been receiving so many complaints from the patients and attendants — how doctors are treating them and scaring them inside the wards. A hospital is meant for the patients, and if we fail to mitigate the pain and sufferings of the patients then we have no right to operate there,” Health Minister said.

“A patient needs to be treated well and an attendant needs to be respected,” Singh said, pledging that people “will feel a sea change” once he takes over as the Vice-chairman of the SKIMS Governing Body.

Responding to a question, Lal Singh said that he will not be the “first Health Minister to take over as the Vice-chairman of the Governing Body” as is being made out by those whose vested interests are now threatened.

“By autonomy, the Director SKIMS means that he should have unaccountable powers and say and all others should obey him. We all know the present functioning of the institute and I can tell you with authority that patients and their attendants will stop complaining once I take over,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) and Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) today hailed the decision of reconstituting SKIMS Governing Body and urged the government to show the door to the incumbent Director to save the prestigious institution from further deterioration.

“The current Director is illegally occupying the top job through sheer hypocrisy and sycophancy despite his superannuation last year. The hospital has lost its credibility, patient-care has nose-dived and the relations between employees and the administration too have deteriorated,” EJAC president Abdul Qayoom Wani said in a statement here.

Wani alleged the present Director SKIMS besides being “scrupulously corrupt” also behaves like a dictator and is habitual of humiliating patients, attendants and employees.

Wani urged upon the new Governing Body SKIMS to replace the present Director by competent, honest and dedicated officer who has a sense of belonging with the institution.

In a statement, DAK president, Dr Nisar ul Hassan while welcoming the reconstitution of Governing Body said that it will improve the functioning of SKIMS which is in complete shambles.

“The incorporation of Health Minister as Vice-chairman of the Governing Body, which has been the practice in the past, will rejuvenate SKIMS which has deteriorated in the absence of Vice-chairman,” DAK president said.

He said the Vice-chairman will act as a link between SKIMS and the Chief Minister (Chairman) and will facilitate day-to-day monitoring of SKIMS.

DAK will appreciate removal of deadwood and its replacement by dynamic people with new and fresh ideas, the statement said.

“It is unfortunate that some elements with vested interests are generating false perception and misleading people about reconstituted Governing Body,” the statement regretted.

“These elements are hand-in-glove with SKIMS’ administration and have been covering-up their wrongdoings and misdeeds and portraying corrupt and fraud SKIMS head as the holy cow,” DAK statement said, adding that these elements had generated a false narrative about private practice of SKIMS in past and are disseminating false and incorrect information to people now.

“SKIMS has been turned into a hub of corruption where purchase scams, illegal appointments and academic frauds are rampant,” DAK said.

“SKIMS authorities fear that their corrupt practices will be exposed by the new Governing Body which is the reason they are using their stooges to sabotage the reconstituted body,” the statement added.

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