Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 18: The Head of Surgical Oncology of SKIMS and three faculty members have submitted their resignations in protest against victimization by senior doctors.
HoD, Dr Altaf Gauhar Hajji and faculty members Dr Sheikh Zahoor Ahmad, Dr Azhar Jan Batoo and Dr Abdul Wahid Mir tendered their resignations in protest against victimization by the senior doctors.
They alleged that they are being abused and bullied with HoD General Surgery (Prof Khurshid Alam) and HoD Neurosurgery (Prof Altaf Ramzan) playing as main role.
“In 2014, seeing the massive influx of cancer patients dying in waiting list, our Department initiated a new strategy and we proposed to the then CM regarding starting outreach programmes in district hospitals to screen cancer at early stage and treat low risk cancers in these hospitals and at the same time to train the general surgeons in these hospitals. This initiative was widely lauded and proved to be a great success and till last quarter of 2016 hundreds of patients were screened and operated at district hospitals without even a single death”, they said in their resignation letter.
They accused Prof Alam and Prof Ramzan bullying the present administrative head of SKIMS and running a parallel administration.
“Since the date of our joining, we have made various representations to administration and to the Government regarding the sufferings of cancer patients due to shortage of theatre slots. But unfortunately no progress has been made so far and many of our patients have either been forced to seek treatment outside state or they have become inoperable. It’s notable to say that these very people are leading the theater users committee, a body which is supposed to rationalize the use of OT slots so that most needy departments are accommodated on priority. It is unfortunate that in the previous governing body meeting held in October 2016 under the chairpersonship of Mehbooba Mufti, our cancer outreach programme was shot down by these two members, by providing misleading information to the house”, they said.
“Since we have been victimized right from the days of inception of this Department in different ways, we are now completely exhausted, dis-illusioned and psychologically traumatized. In view of all this, we feel hostility in the Institute for growth and independent development of our department. We cannot survive in this hostile atmosphere and cannot see our patients dying in waiting for their turn to get operated. Under these circumstances, we feel that we should follow the footsteps of our HoD (Dr Altaf Gauhar Haji). In view of all this we have been pushed to the edge and are forced to resign from active services of this Institute”, the doctors said.
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