Satyendar Jain wants to be autonomous hospitals' boss

New Delhi: In a rare move, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain has proposed his own name for the chairmanship of all the autonomous hospitals in the national capital.

According to Societies Registration Act, 1860, the chairperson of autonomous institutions should be the head of the governing body and their administration cannot be controlled by anyone else, not even by a political minister.

In a letter sent out on October 13, Mr Jain proposed to change the chairpersons of the hospitals registered under Societies Registration Act and expressed his desire to become the new chairman of at least six such autonomous hospitals in Delhi.

Directing the chief secretary to take necessary action, Mr Jain’s letter stated that change of chairperson in the hospitals can be “immediately done” with the approval of the health minister or by submitting a proposal for a Cabinet decision.

The letter, accessed by this newspaper, added that the matter was discussed with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

At present, there are eight autonomous hospitals in the national capital. These include Janak Puri Super Speciality Hospital (JSSH), Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya (CNBC), Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI), Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Science (MAIDS), Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan (CBPACS).

Currently, Delhi chief secretary M.M. Kutty is the chairman of the first six institutes out of the eight mentioned above and the health minister is already the chairman of IHBAS and CBPACS according to a memorandum of both the institutes.

While this is the first time that a health minister is going to take over the chairmanship of all autonomous hospitals, sources said that there cannot be any political interference in running any autonomous institute and that the government is going against the Central Act.

“It is only administered by the director of respective hospitals. Presently, the chairman of the governing body of all the society hospitals is Delhi chief secretary MM Kutty. The governing body has finance secretary to look after the financial matter. Now the situation of these hospitals would be similar to that of other government hospitals that are facing a lot of management and healthcare facility issues,” a government source said.