The super specialty hospital that has no doctors

The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders leave no opportunity to boast about the corporate level medical facilities they allegedly provide at government hospitals across the state. But the truth seems to be completely against the tall claims. 

Take the case of the super specialty hospital attached to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Adilabad. Health minister, T Harish Rao inaugurated the facility in March 2022.  

The BRS claimed to have established the facility along with sophisticated medical equipment at a cost of Rs. 150 crores. The government has notified 52 posts in different departments including cardiology, neuro, cancer, gastro, pediatrics, anesthesia and radiology. But only six medical officers from RIMS joined the new facility, while 46 medical officer vacancies are lying vacant even after one of year of inauguration. 

Recently, two patients – one suffering with stones in kidneys and another with heart disease – came to the government super specialty hospital for treatment. However, they were referred to Maharashtra and Hyderabad respectively as the specialists concerned were not available. 

Sources in the hospital said that the MRI equipment has not been installed so far though the director of medical education claims to have released about Rs. 12 crores for the purpose.  

The patients are referred to Nizamabad, Hyderabad in Telangana and Yavatmal and Nagpur in Maharashtra even for MRI. Patients bemoan that this is the kind of corporate level medical facilities provided by the BRS.