The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu government to form “flying squads” on a regional/district level for the purpose of conducting surprise inspections at government-run hospitals and primary health centres.
A bench of Justice SM Subramaniam asked the secretary of the department of health and family welfare to take this step to ensure that doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff were attending to their duties, as per the rules, and were present during working hours.
The court said these flying squads will also monitor the functioning of the hospitals, including quality of treatment and medicines supplied to patients. The order was passed in a writ petition moved by a retired medical store officer, who had faced disciplinary action for allegedly ordering excessive speciality drugs causing massive loss to the state exchequer.
The petitioner urged the court to quash the order of the dean of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, who had directed for the recovery of financial loss running up to Rs 56.45 lakh from the petitioner. Besides, the petitioner prayed before the court to issue a direction to the dean to release retirement benefits such as gratuity, special provident fund and earn leave salary that were being held back.
The court noted that an inquiry was initiated against the petitioner for the purchase of a large quantity of excess speciality medicines, but owing to an interim order in the present writ petition, the petitioner refused to cooperate. Thereafter, the dean issued the order for recovery.
The court held that the allegations against the petitioner were serious in nature and, therefore, said the inquiry must be concluded in all respects. “The financial loss caused to the state exchequer must be recovered from all concerned and the public cannot be made to suffer on account of irregularities or illegalities committed by the public servants,” it said.
While stating that “the right to health and medical care is a fundamental right”, the court quashed the recovery order issued by the dean and directed for a detailed inquiry against all officials involved in the matter, including the petitioner.
In addition to this, the HC directed the state to constitute flying squads and also ordered that the activities of these squads will be monitored by the department heads/government.
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