MAMC docs don’t want CM as guest, cancel meet

NEWDELHI: The inaugural function of the alumni meeting of Maulana Azad Medical College on December 20 was cancelled after several doctors belonging to the old students association did not want Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to be the chief guest.

“After the chief minister decided to close a hospital in city, many doctors opposed him being the chief guest, which is why the inaugural function had to be cancelled,” said a member of the organising committee, on a condition of anonymity.

This refers to the Delhi government’s decision to cancel the licence of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, after doctors in the hospital wrongly declared a newborn dead. A government probe said that the hospital was negligent in declaring the baby dead and handing over the body to the parents in a plastic bag without conducting an echocardiography.

The government also said that the hospital had been a habitual offender and had been served notices improper out-patient clinics for patients from economically weaker section and improper utilisation of increased beds for dengue season.

However, doctors’ bodies have maintained that closing the hospital over a single incident was a harsh decision. There have also been debates about whether a baby born before 24-weeks is just a ‘foetus’ as the Indian government allows abortion uptill 20 weeks and 24 in extreme cases.

Maulana Azad Medical College is one of the top five medical colleges in the country with 290 seats for undergraduate students and 245 for post-graduate students. The college is associated with Lok Nayak Hospital, GB Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences and Guru Nanak Eye Centre. In total, these hospitals have 2,800 beds, 47 operation theatres running daily, and more than 7,000 patients daily.