Govt removes SKIMS Director, suspends three senior doctors

Samaan Lateef

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 6

The government today removed the Director of Valley’s premier health institution — Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences — and suspended top three doctors after the trio was found doing private practice.

The government has ordered the attachment of SKIMS Director Prof (Dr) AG Ahanger with the General Administration Department till further orders.

“The government today ordered suspension of three senior faculty members of SKIMS, Soura, and their immediate attachment with the office of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir,” read a government order issued on Saturday evening.

The Dean and Head of Department of General Surgery, SKIMS, Dr Altaf Kirmani; Head of Neurology Department Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Wani and Head of Neonatology Department Dr Wajid Ali have been placed under suspension for violating norms of not practising while serving the SKIMS, read the government order.

The official spokesman said that the decision followed complaints of private practice by these three doctors despite drawing non-practising allowance from.the institution.

A national news channel had carried out a sting operation on Friday in which the three doctors were allegedly found practising at their private clinics.

Officials say the decision to remove the Director and attach the three doctors necessitated as the government did not want any crisis amid the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly. “We have witnessed such expose of doctors indulging in private practice in past but the government never acted against them,” said the official.