NIMS - A STAGE FOR BIG POLITICAL MOVES?

Hyderabad: Among many ticket seekers in the 2009 election was an unlikely candidate . Dr D Prasada Rao, director of Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims), who hails from Ongole was seeking a Congress ticket to contest the polls for an MLA seat. His political dream could not take off with Congress denying him the ticket but it only verified a trend that most had perceived: the political nature of key appointments at Nims.

Is it for this reason that Nims has of late turned into a playing ground of politicians , who have been making their political moves sitting in the VIP rooms of this superspeciality hospital that was founded to serve the needy The answer to this question does not lie with the directors post alone. Why Nims is the preferred destination for making political moves has more reasons than one.

While MLAs, ministers or even bureaucrats are entitled to take treatment at Nims, senior health officials say that the choice of the hospital eventually rests on the person . So, a Lagadapati Rajagopal could have possibly run into a five-star private hospitals ICU as against sprinting for the acute medical unit of Nims if he so wanted. He chose Nims not only because it is in the heart of the city where he would get all the (media) attention given that KCR was also recuperating here, but also because he knew how malleable the management is, claims a city-based senior doctor.

The hospital is also better preferred by netas because of its funding model. Partly funded by the government, politicians do not have to worry much in case tempers do run high and there is damage to property or even the hospitals reputation, which may be the case if they go to a private hospital. Nims can absorb any amount of damage, said the doctor.

But Nims moved up the roll of honour several years before Dr Prasada Rao became its director. Earlier it was Osmania hospital where all ministers, governors, MLAs would go for treatment . But Nims became the centre of attraction 30 years ago, recalls Dr A Y Chari, former superintendent of Gandhi hospital. It was for the facilities that Nims had started offering and the lack of them in government hospitals pushed it up in the preference of politicians.

Founded by the Nizams Charitable Trust in 1964, Nims was given to the government on a lease for 99 years in the year 1976. When founded it was called the Nizams Orthopaedic Hospital and offered only one speciality but later in 1986 it had turned into a super speciality hospital and was renamed Nims. The governing council of Nims is headed by the CM, has the health minister, health and finance secretaries and two representatives from the Nizams Charitable Trust as its members.

However, the Nizams trust has in the past voiced its concern over the manner in which the original intent (of the hospital) of serving the poor has been diluted. The trust, in its various communications to the government , indicated its disappointment with the way Nims is being managed and is currently examining options for corrective measures.

After all, the Nims corridors have been most conducive for various leaders and this comfort has not been extended to the regular patient . For the entire month of December, so far, normal activity at Nims has been impacted . Patients have been shooed away by gun-toting policemen and in-patients have been tremendously inconvenienced with the chaos on the campus. The government, that partly funds Nims (which gets it remaining funding from patients who seek treatment here), says it has taken notice of the inconvenience caused. Patients being inconvenienced is a cause for concern and we need to see how to handle such situations, says J Sathyanarayana, principal secretary, health.

The Nims incurred a loss of Rs one crore during TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Raos week-long stay in the hospital, Nims officials said. The usual out-patient flow of 2,000 to 2,500 came down to a few hundreds from December 3 to 11, the officials said. On an average, the per day income of Nims is Rs 50 lakh, including critical care. Due to the chaos, the number of patients had trickled down considerably, said a senior official. Even as the hospital was getting back to its normal routine, the sudden entry of Lagadapati and the resultant chaos on Monday once again hit the hospital with the out-patient cases coming down to a drastic 740. TNN