M’lore: Probe corruption charges at Wenlock Hospital, DC told

The Hindu

Mangalore, 14 September 2011: Chairman of Karnataka State Minorities Commission Anwar Manippady at a meeting here on Tuesday asked Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda to conduct an inquiry into allegations of corruption by doctors and other staff at the Government Wenlock Hospital here and submit a report to the commission.

 

Anwar Manippady (second right) Chairman, Karnataka Minorities Commission, addressing the review meeting in Mangalore on Tuesday

 

Some members of civil society at the meeting said that some doctors and staff were demanding money for conducting postmortem at the hospital. Some were demanding money at the mortuary. A few said that doctors were asking patients to purchase medicines at medical shops by giving them prescription. Some said that patients were being made to run from pillar to post to get relevant medical certificates.

 

Mr. Manippady said he had received complaints of alleged corruption in the hospital. A member of civil society suggested the chairman to visit the hospital in disguise to get a first hand experience of the activities at the hospital.

 

G.M. Sangameshwar, District Surgeon, Government Wenlock Hospital, denied these allegations.

 

Arguments

Dr. Sangameshwar said that the Group D staff at the mortuary belonged to the Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Mangalore, and were not under the control of the hospital.

 

He challenged Mr. Manippady to name the doctors specifically who received money. “I will summon them here immediately,” he said. There were heated arguments between Mr. Manippady and the district surgeon over the allegation.

 

Some members of civil society said the district surgeon was passing the buck on KMC. They wanted to know whether Wenlock Hospital did not have any control over the KMC staff at the government hospital. They wanted to know how the KMC staff could conduct activities themselves irresponsibly.

 

Mr. Manippady asked if there was anybody in the meeting who would like to defend the hospital.

 

When no one came forward he asked Mr. Gowda to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

 

Later, the chairman told presspersons that he would recommend to the government for action over this issue based on the findings of the report.

 

At a meeting, the chairman said in some places (not in Mangalore) medical kits under “madilu yojane” which were meant to be given to mothers at government hospitals had been sold at “Sunday bazaars”.

 

The kit contained 21 materials. Superintendent of the Lady Goschen hospital Shakuntala said that not even a single kit from the hospital was being sold outside.

 

A woman who was the warden of a hostel from Mulky said that the community health centre at Mulky delayed supply of blood investigation reports of inmates of the hostel. The health authorities claimed that they had to send the samples to Government Wenlock Hospital. An official from the Department of Health and Family Welfare said in the meeting that the health centre at Mulky had facilities for testing blood samples.

 

Secretary to the commission Ateeq Ahmed, Mangalore Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh, Superintendent of Police Labu Ram, and Chief Executive Officer K N Vijayaprakash were present.