State of affairs in limbo; rudderless Ruia looks for chief

Tirupati: Since more than six months, the renowned Ruia General Hospital in the Rayalaseema region has been looking for a permanent Superintendent. This hospital serves the requirements of thousands of underprivileged patients every day. When dealing with such pressing situations, district officials and the state health department, including health minister V Rajani, have displayed a passive approach. As a result, the hospital has been dealing with a plethora of administrative problems.

Everyday Ruia teaching hospital witnesses around 1,000 inpatients and over 2,000 outpatients every day. Patients come to this hospital even from the neighbouring districts. After the hospital superintendent Dr T Bharathi attained superannuation on August 31, 2022, the government has appointed Dr K Naga Muneendrudu as in-charge superintendent with full additional charge (FAC) without appointing a regular superintendent. Since then, he has been continuing as the in-charge superintendent only. In recent times, he has been going on leave on most occasions reportedly with some health issues and handing over the charge to some other senior doctor with much difficulty as no one is interested to take up the responsibilities.

The hospital development society (HDS) meetings led by the District Collector as its chairman should be held once in every month which can focus on key aspects and take appropriate decisions. But, for the past few months, this meeting was also not held. All this led to a state of indiscipline in every aspect of the hospital administration.

Recently, some data entry operators have forged some photos and signatures with fake patients to enter them as YSR Aarogyasri Asara beneficiaries and misappropriated huge funds. While the enquiry was going on in this scam, it came into light that after the government removed the data entry operators a few months back, they were employed privately by the heads of some departments to take up the day-to-day affairs.

Speaking to The Hans India, Rayalaseema Porata Samithi convenor P Naveen Kumar Reddy said that the hospital has been coming across one problem after another due to lack of regular administration. The in-charges have been focussing on day-to-day aspects only and the key problems remained intact.

He demanded that the government should order a vigilance enquiry into the data entry operators scam suspecting key persons behind them. He even suspected more irregularities in the scheme at private hospitals which can come into light only after a thorough enquiry.