This govt hospital is without a permanent head

Even as Covid-19 pressed the health system into an emergency mode, a prominent city institute has been without a permanent head for nearly 10 months.

In June 2019, the government issued an order to have an interim charge of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, but it is yet to finalise the right person to take over the duties permanently.

“We have the coronavirus threat and cases of gastroenteritis in the state. The institute needs to be prepared to take on the health issues (with a permanent head),” former director Dr Asha Benakappa said.

She alleged foul play in the appointment process after the government withdrew the earlier notification. “We all applied and then the notification was withdrawn, citing changes in rules,” she said. The institute’s in-charge director Dr K S Sanjay declined to comment when DH contacted him for this story.

Meanwhile, the director for the department of medical education, Dr PG Girish, insisted that the process to appoint a permanent director for the institute is underway. “We had to amend the rules made some 24 years ago,” he said.

Age limit an issue

He said the rules state that anyone up to 62 years could apply for the director’s position, while the government has capped the age limit for other institutes at 60. “We didn’t want an exemption made for the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health,” Dr Girish said, adding that the institute’s governing council meeting also has to be called to amend some other rules.

“There was an option for outsiders to apply and we had applicants from Vani Vilas and other hospitals. But many were of the opinion that this could be unfair to those serving at the institute,” Dr Girish said. Such being the insiders’ feelings, Dr Girish felt it would be difficult for an outsider to work at the institute.

Meanwhile, a few students had presented the bust of the institute’s founder director Dr D G Benakappa in January 2018, but the bust is still kept under wraps for want of an auspicious date and availability of guests, Dr Asha said.