Delhi: Medical superintendent of hospital writes to L-G over ‘arbitrary’ transfer

On August 6, Dr Rampal was transferred from the post of the MS of the hospital to Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). “The arbitrariness is born by the fact that it is a single order which reflects that it is not a routine transfer posting. This has been done despite there being no complaint against me and it appears to be a punishment for my good work, which has had a demoralising effect. Such action breaks the morale of an honest officer and is against the spirit of the message of the Prime Minister regarding corona warriors. When many of my contemporaries had opted to move out, I chose to serve humanity at an age of 61 and with severe diabetes,” he stated in the representation submitted to the L-G house on Monday. A copy of the letter has been sent to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

While the hospital is under the Delhi government, the transfer/posting of doctors is done by the services department that falls under the L-G. When contacted, the L-G house did not respond to queries by The Indian Express.

In his representation, Dr Rampal also said he had managed to treat all patients visiting the hospital with limited facilities. “As centralised air conditioning was unconducive in Covid hospitals, I ensured that each ward was provided air conditioning through the installation of split ACs on a war footing. The hospital has the lowest mortality rate. Despite being a 200-bed hospital, it has 15 ICU ventilators out of which eight were procured during the pandemic,” he stated. Three Covid-care centres were attached to the hospital for testing patients. There are 192 beds for Covid patients, of which 110 are vacant.

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded 1,257 fresh cases, and eight deaths, in the last 24 hours. This is the first time in over two months the daily number of deaths has dropped below 10. CM Kejriwal tweeted, “We have taken several steps to reduce the number of fatalities due to the virus. We want no deaths due to it in the future. Every person is important to us.”