Round 1 to Ramadoss, says panel will probe AIIMS rot

While he did tone down his personal attack against AIIMS director P Venugopal, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced a “high-level committee” to probe into what he called the “administrative collapse and non-functioning of the institute.’’

While he did tone down his personal attack against AIIMS director P Venugopal, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced a “high-level committee” to probe into what he called the “administrative collapse and non-functioning of the institute.’’ He said Venugopal would also be asked to explain.

Claiming that this was endorsed by the PMO, the Minister’s announcement came after a meeting he had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“I met the PM on the AIIMS issue and we decided that a committee will be set up to look into the functioning of AIIMS as we feel the quality and functioning of the institute have suffered in the last two years,’’ said Ramadoss.

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The committee will be chaired by Dr M S Valiathan from the Sri Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology at Thiruvananthapuram (Also known for the Chitra Valve marketed by a Chennai-based company). The other two members are Health Secretary P K Hota and Director General Health Services S K Srivastava.

Though the panel’s terms of reference will be set up in a week, Ramadoss said it would look into the “administrative collapse,” the institute’s research goals and the exodus of senior doctors “I want that the prestige of AIIMS should be restored.” said Ramadoss.

Asked about his eroding the autonomy of the institute, Ramadoss said: ‘‘Autonomy is a fancy term. When some action is taken against any institute they start talking about autonomy.’’

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