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Delhi HC stays Dr Trehan’s removal from Fortis
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19
The standoff between the new owners of the Escorts Hospital, Fortis Healthcare, and country's topmost cardiologist Naresh Trehan has worsened in a day of fast developments.

Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Mohan Singh in a sudden move last night removed the country’s topmost cardiologist Naresh Trehan from the EHIRC from executive functions, citing conflict of interest between the cardiologist’s “self-promoted” Medicity Project and the EHIRC as the reason.

Trehan, on the other hand, told The Tribune that the High Court had stayed the Fortis move. “The court has allowed me to operate till the next hearing on August 6,” he said.

Dr Trehan, who has more than 50,000 surgeries to his credit, performed seven operations even today at the Escorts hospital.

In a high-voltage drama that unfolded at the Delhi's renowned hospital, the security guards prevented the cardiologist from entering the hospital premises. He was allowed to enter after relatives of patients staged a protest.

Fortis officials, however, say Trehan was not allowed to enter as a ‘preventive measure’ to control the situation as scores of people were also with him. A case of vandalism was also slapped against the cardiologist.

After he was not allowed to get inside the operation theatre, angry patients and relatives even tried to break locks of the operation theatre and a few windows. Relatives of patients, up in arms against the hospital authorities, even raised slogans against the management.

As per Fortis Hospital’s MD, Trehan's administrative powers had been terminated and he had been asked to give up his responsibilities. His rights to operate on patients had been withdrawn and he would be allowed limited entry till all the patients registered under him were treated.

Singh, who holds a majority 90 per cent stake in EHIRC, denied any move to buy Trehan's 10 per cent stake in the institution. He reiterated that the cardiologist had been asked to give up his responsibilities as a doctor and administrator at the hospital, which Fortis acquired from Rajan Nanda in 2005. “We have not asked for his stake in the hospital. He continues to be an investor with EHIRC,” Singh said.

Trehan, besides holding 10 per cent stake in the institute, is also the executive director and chief cardio-thoracic surgeon at the institute. But an outraged Trehan categorically said he was not going to quit and no one could stop him from treating his patients. “He has no right to remove me,” he said, adding that the management was trying to hijack the charity mission for money. As far as the management is concerned, it is the conflict of interest between Trehan's Medicity project at Gurgaon and EHIRC that is the reason for its harsh stand.

Doctors at the institute admit there was a growing rift between the management and Trehan as the latter was found to be concentrating more on his own project. While differences had been brewing for quite sometime, they reached a boiling point yesterday when it was made official that Trehan’s focus on the Rs 1000-crore medicity project was coming in the way of EHIRC’s interests.

Trehan says his job was to treat patients and he had been appointed by the society. He has been holding the executive director’s position for 20 years and was duty-bound to attend to his patients.

About his future course of action, Trehan said, “As a professional, my total responsibility is with patients and I cannot abandon them. I'll have to continue to see my patients and the rest would depend on how things develop.”

Dismissing allegations that there was a conflict of interest between his Medicity project and Escorts, Trehan said, “Medicity is at the construction stage and I am not referring any patients there, nor am I not doing job here.”

Earlier in the day, Shivninder M. Singh said, “The decision has been taken, after much deliberation on both sides, in the context of significant conflict of interest in Dr Trehan’s case vis-a-vis his personal project of Medicity, which takes up considerable amount of his time and attention.

“Whereas the footsteps of Dr Naresh Trehan are far too large to be filled by any single individual, I am confident that the organization he has nurtured and the legacy he leaves behind, of competent clinicians, expert support staff, robust clinical processes and a patient centric system, will continue to function at its customary level of excellence.

“As an interim step to maintain operational continuity, I will personally take management charge of the hospital,” he said.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the employees of EHIRC, I acknowledge the invaluable contribution made to EHIRC by Dr Trehan and wish him all the best for the future,” Shivinder Singh said.

Trehan finds saviour in Anil Nanda

Sacked from Escorts, cardiologist Naresh Trehan today found an unexpected saviour in Anil Nanda, on whose petition the Delhi High Court permitted him to treat his patients and allowed his unrestricted entry into the institute owned by Fortis Healthcare. Acting on a petition by Anil Nanda, who had earlier opposed elder brother Rajan Nanda, from selling majority stake in Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC) to Fortis in 2005, Justice Gita Mittal said, “he (Trehan) will be allowed to treat his patients and will have unrestricted access to the hospital.” — PTI