05-20-2007, 03:47 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Patients revolt over ouster </b>
Jayita Bandyopadhyay | New Delhi
'I have human contract with patients'
Trehan barred, humiliated at escorts
<b>Indians don't deserve icons. It may sound presumptuous but Dr Naresh Trehan, a visionary who changed the face of healthcare in India, is proof of our disdain for talent.</b>
Hurt and angered by the disrespectful manner in which he was "dismissed" from Escorts Hospital, Dr Trehan burst out on Saturday in-between surgeries: "Let the people judge the management decision to sack me. Let the patients I have cured here say that I shouldn't work as a surgeon at Escorts anymore. Let's see if Indians let this injustice happen. I can't do anything. Let the people decide if they want to allow this high-handedness."Â Â
Cops thrash protesting relatives of Trehanâs patients at Escorts Hospital on Saturday as a worried daughter and her father wonder what would happen to her mother who was to be operated upon by Trehan-Pradeep Gaur | Pioneer
On Friday, Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Escorts Heart Institute and Fortis Healthcare Limited, "disengaged" Dr Trehan from the institute in "view of the conflict of interest" vis-a-vis his Medicity project.
Dr Trehan has got a stay order issued till August 6, 2007. The good news for patients is that the surgeries scheduled till then will be performed by him. His office announced this late on Saturday. But before this drama unfolded at Escorts.
Not satisfied with humiliating Dr Trehan, the management threatened staffers close to him. His aides said they had been "warned" by the management not to facilitate Dr Trehan's entry into the hospital. "We have been told if we let him in we lose our jobs."
Henchmen tried to physically stop Dr Trehan from entering the institute, which the New York-returned surgeon has helped build and has been associated with for 20 years. "There was a cordon of private securitymen who tried to stop me from entering but relatives of patients cleared the path for me," Dr Trehan said.
The agitated relatives protested Singh's shabby move and made sure Dr Trehan operated. "The patients want me to treat them. And that's what I am doing. I need to service this hospital and the patients. Nobody has the right to stop me from doing that. Treating people is my right and no one can keep me away from it," Dr Trehan emphasised, insisting he is still very much a part of the institute.
"I was conducting surgeries when I heard of this dismissal notice. This is nothing but a fancy idea to try to hide someone's dirty work. I am not an inconvenience to the hospital or the patients, for whom this institution has been built. I have become inconvenient in someone's dark scheme. And that's why they are trying to get rid of me," he said.
The international Fortis Healthcare Limited, backed by pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, acquired EHIRC in 2005 from Rajan Nanda for Rs 585 crore in a disputed deal.
The institute was set up in 1988 as a charitable organisation by the Late HP Nanda of the Escorts Group of Companies with technical help from Dr Trehan, who quit his lucrative US career to serve his country. After HP Nanda's death, Rajan Nanda took over. "He hoodwinked me and other senior staffers and converted the institute into a profitable body. In 2003, Nanda removed the non-profitable clause from the institute's deed.
"When we confronted him with this lapse he promised to reverse his decision. But he didn't. He was caught by the Income Tax department for fraud and we saved him on the promise that he would reverse his fault. He still didn't. Then, one midnight in September 2005, he sold Escorts to Fortis. The case of ownership of Escorts is in court and maybe Fortis doesn't own it. The matter is sub judice.
"In the first hearing in 2005, the court said that prima-facie evidence shows some fraud has been done and the case needs to be investigated thoroughly. With what authority then can they evict me or anyone else?" an angry Trehan asked.
"Maybe they own a company that doesn't have Escorts as a part of its assets," he added.
<b>Over the last few months reputed Escorts doctors have been forcibly transferred by the management to sister institutes. On Friday, Dr Yatin Mehta, Senior Consultant and Head of Anaesthesiology at Escorts, was forced to sign his resignation papers. "Four to five people surrounded Mehta and forced him to sign. </b>
"This is all a part of a larger scam that is being played out by the management. This is against the ethos of Escorts," said Dr Trehan.
What about his 10 per cent stake in the hospital? "The shares were given to me by the senior Nanda as a smokescreen. I never wanted the shares in the first place. Had I been interested, I would have sold them off for the Rs 70 to 80 crore they offered me during the Fortis takeover. I refused to sell my soul.
"Escorts isn't a money-making organisation for me. It is my heart, my soul and my entire life. How can they expect me to sell myself? And as the ownership issue is debatable, may be those shares don't mean anything legally," Trehan said.
Trehan has also been accused of diverting his attention to Medicity, a super-speciality multi-billion healthcare hub being built in Gurgaon. "I have built so many hospitals for Escorts. I have helped build their Jaipur and Amritsar centres. Then they applauded me. Right now, Medicity is nothing but a cement and steel structure.
"It's just another hospital I'm building. So how can I divert my attention from Escorts?" he asked.
As a pioneer and a dependable brand, does he feel cheated by this action? "In life you meet certain people who are simply bad. They can't degrade or upgrade you. But you have to fight them, prevent them from harming society at large. I have a human contract with the patients and I have to uphold that," he said.
Though Trehan operated on patients on Saturday, the hospital said he was doing so at his own responsibility. The future of the patients scheduled to be operated later by Dr Trehan is uncertain. "Till this moment I am a part of Escorts and am treating patients.
"The relatives of patients are protesting, doctors here have signed a letter addressed to the management saying that they don't recognise it and won't obey it. But I don't know what will happen after Monday," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rajan Nanda is Amitabh Bachan daughter's father-in-law.
He is contributor and supporter of Congress.
Jayita Bandyopadhyay | New Delhi
'I have human contract with patients'
Trehan barred, humiliated at escorts
<b>Indians don't deserve icons. It may sound presumptuous but Dr Naresh Trehan, a visionary who changed the face of healthcare in India, is proof of our disdain for talent.</b>
Hurt and angered by the disrespectful manner in which he was "dismissed" from Escorts Hospital, Dr Trehan burst out on Saturday in-between surgeries: "Let the people judge the management decision to sack me. Let the patients I have cured here say that I shouldn't work as a surgeon at Escorts anymore. Let's see if Indians let this injustice happen. I can't do anything. Let the people decide if they want to allow this high-handedness."Â Â
Cops thrash protesting relatives of Trehanâs patients at Escorts Hospital on Saturday as a worried daughter and her father wonder what would happen to her mother who was to be operated upon by Trehan-Pradeep Gaur | Pioneer
On Friday, Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Escorts Heart Institute and Fortis Healthcare Limited, "disengaged" Dr Trehan from the institute in "view of the conflict of interest" vis-a-vis his Medicity project.
Dr Trehan has got a stay order issued till August 6, 2007. The good news for patients is that the surgeries scheduled till then will be performed by him. His office announced this late on Saturday. But before this drama unfolded at Escorts.
Not satisfied with humiliating Dr Trehan, the management threatened staffers close to him. His aides said they had been "warned" by the management not to facilitate Dr Trehan's entry into the hospital. "We have been told if we let him in we lose our jobs."
Henchmen tried to physically stop Dr Trehan from entering the institute, which the New York-returned surgeon has helped build and has been associated with for 20 years. "There was a cordon of private securitymen who tried to stop me from entering but relatives of patients cleared the path for me," Dr Trehan said.
The agitated relatives protested Singh's shabby move and made sure Dr Trehan operated. "The patients want me to treat them. And that's what I am doing. I need to service this hospital and the patients. Nobody has the right to stop me from doing that. Treating people is my right and no one can keep me away from it," Dr Trehan emphasised, insisting he is still very much a part of the institute.
"I was conducting surgeries when I heard of this dismissal notice. This is nothing but a fancy idea to try to hide someone's dirty work. I am not an inconvenience to the hospital or the patients, for whom this institution has been built. I have become inconvenient in someone's dark scheme. And that's why they are trying to get rid of me," he said.
The international Fortis Healthcare Limited, backed by pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, acquired EHIRC in 2005 from Rajan Nanda for Rs 585 crore in a disputed deal.
The institute was set up in 1988 as a charitable organisation by the Late HP Nanda of the Escorts Group of Companies with technical help from Dr Trehan, who quit his lucrative US career to serve his country. After HP Nanda's death, Rajan Nanda took over. "He hoodwinked me and other senior staffers and converted the institute into a profitable body. In 2003, Nanda removed the non-profitable clause from the institute's deed.
"When we confronted him with this lapse he promised to reverse his decision. But he didn't. He was caught by the Income Tax department for fraud and we saved him on the promise that he would reverse his fault. He still didn't. Then, one midnight in September 2005, he sold Escorts to Fortis. The case of ownership of Escorts is in court and maybe Fortis doesn't own it. The matter is sub judice.
"In the first hearing in 2005, the court said that prima-facie evidence shows some fraud has been done and the case needs to be investigated thoroughly. With what authority then can they evict me or anyone else?" an angry Trehan asked.
"Maybe they own a company that doesn't have Escorts as a part of its assets," he added.
<b>Over the last few months reputed Escorts doctors have been forcibly transferred by the management to sister institutes. On Friday, Dr Yatin Mehta, Senior Consultant and Head of Anaesthesiology at Escorts, was forced to sign his resignation papers. "Four to five people surrounded Mehta and forced him to sign. </b>
"This is all a part of a larger scam that is being played out by the management. This is against the ethos of Escorts," said Dr Trehan.
What about his 10 per cent stake in the hospital? "The shares were given to me by the senior Nanda as a smokescreen. I never wanted the shares in the first place. Had I been interested, I would have sold them off for the Rs 70 to 80 crore they offered me during the Fortis takeover. I refused to sell my soul.
"Escorts isn't a money-making organisation for me. It is my heart, my soul and my entire life. How can they expect me to sell myself? And as the ownership issue is debatable, may be those shares don't mean anything legally," Trehan said.
Trehan has also been accused of diverting his attention to Medicity, a super-speciality multi-billion healthcare hub being built in Gurgaon. "I have built so many hospitals for Escorts. I have helped build their Jaipur and Amritsar centres. Then they applauded me. Right now, Medicity is nothing but a cement and steel structure.
"It's just another hospital I'm building. So how can I divert my attention from Escorts?" he asked.
As a pioneer and a dependable brand, does he feel cheated by this action? "In life you meet certain people who are simply bad. They can't degrade or upgrade you. But you have to fight them, prevent them from harming society at large. I have a human contract with the patients and I have to uphold that," he said.
Though Trehan operated on patients on Saturday, the hospital said he was doing so at his own responsibility. The future of the patients scheduled to be operated later by Dr Trehan is uncertain. "Till this moment I am a part of Escorts and am treating patients.
"The relatives of patients are protesting, doctors here have signed a letter addressed to the management saying that they don't recognise it and won't obey it. But I don't know what will happen after Monday," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rajan Nanda is Amitabh Bachan daughter's father-in-law.
He is contributor and supporter of Congress.