Health staff stays aloof from guv, gap widens

Health staff stays aloof from guv, gap widens

Sribala.Vadlapatla@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  09.07.2020

Is there concern not just among senior government officials but also among doctors about governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s visits to hospitals to take stock of Covid-19 situation? It appears so, going by the reluctance of the authorities of Gandhi Hospital — the nodal Covid hospital in Telangana — to allow the first citizen of the state when she wished to visit the hospital.

Some time back, the governor had visited the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, interacted with Covid-19 patients and the doctors treating them. The governor said she visited NIMS — where several doctors had tested positive for coronavirus — to express solidarity with the medical professionals as she is a doctor herself.

She even said the government’s response to her letters on handling of Covid-19 had been lukewarm and implored the TRS government to follow the Centre’s guidelines by increasing the testing and sharing information with people on impact of the virus.

That was enough for senior officials to distance themselves from Raj Bhavan. Chief secretary Somesh Kumar and special CS, health, Santhi Kumari gave a meeting called by the governor a miss on Monday. Eventually, the meeting was cancelled.

That the state health department was also not happy about her visit to NIMS could be gauged by the officials’ attempts to dissuade her from making a visit to Gandhi Hospital. Despite her several attempts, a visit to Gandhi has not materialised till now. Highly-placed sources told TOI that she was keen to visit Gandhi Hospital first before making a trip to NIMS. “But, some ‘forces,’ including senior doctors, are opposing her visit,” an official said. “No one wants to upset the top brass, especially when there is a strong perception that there are serious differences between the TRS government and Raj Bhavan,” the official added.

Not just us, many believe that the gap between Raj Bhavan and the TRS regime is widening. We also did not attend the meeting as we cannot afford to rub the government on the wrong side,” a top executive of a corporate hospital told TOI.

“Remember, she was a leading gynaecologist in Tamil Nadu before coming here and taking over as a governor.She is concerned about the pandemic and health of the people. So, she does take extra interest in the health of Covid-affected people,” a Raj Bhavan source told TOI.

Another factor which might have upset the government was governor Tamilisai Soundararajan being ‘active’ on Twitter and talking about coronavirus cases’ review and her visits