Nair doctor ‘stung’ for private practice stripped of post

On June 24, acting on a complaint, additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh Deshmukh visited South Mumbai’s Bombay Hospital and clicked a photograph of the displayed timings between which Dr Ashish Agrawal of Nair hospital was available for consultation. While Dr Agrawal, attached with Nair hospital’s orthopedic department as a unit head, was supposed to be present from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm for his official duty, his consultation timing in Bombay Hospital was allegedly stated to be 2 pm to 4 pm.
An immediate inquiry against Agrawal was initiated.

“Dr Agrawal has been removed as a unit head, but he is still working in the orthopedic department at a lower post. As he worked only for half days for the last five years, we now plan to recover an equivalent amount of salary from him,” said Dr Suhasini Nagda, director of Major Hospitals and Medical Education in the BMC. Bombay Hospital has also furnished a letter stating the timing of Agrawal in their hospital and the year he joined there.

Nair hospital’s dean Dr R N Bharmal said, “I have received Bombay Hospital’s reply and it was found that the doctor did work there while he was supposed to be present here [in Nair hospital].”

Agrawal, however, claimed he had not been demoted. “There was some misunderstanding which has been clarified. My consultation timing at the Bombay Hospital is not from 2 to 4 pm, but from 4.30 to 6.30 pm. There is no investigation going on in this case,” he told Newsline.

Deshmukh had also suspended Dr Uday Limaye, attached with the KEM hospital’s radiology department, after he did not find the latter at work during a surprise check in the hospital. Limaye also had complaints against him in the past.

Currently, of the total 770 doctors in KEM, Sion and Nair hospital, 160 senior doctors are also practising in private hospitals. Of these, 36 are from Nair hospital, 71 are from KEM hospital and 53 are from Sion hospital.

Using demotion as an embarrassment for doctors, the BMC now hopes to dissuade them from private consultancy during their official working hours in civic hospitals.

“While we don’t want to spy on our own doctors, a strict vigil will be kept on those against whom we have received complaints. From now on, all doctors found guilty will face the same fate as Agrawal’s,”Nagda said.

tabassum.barnagarwala@expressindia.com