I was going through my last letter which got me into trouble with the management of Seven Hills written on 14/10/2011: Dear Colleagues, Why dont we, as a group, tell the authorities that the sattelite clincs is a bad idea? It does not make sense, anyway you look at it. Why dont we, collectivly, bell the cat? If we leave it to individuals, they get targeted. I am aware of at least 2 esteemed colleagues of mine who are leaving SevenHills because of this stupid idea. Do we have no guts? I ask this especially of my senior colleagues. You may say to yourselves, let things be, everything will settle down once people see sense. But I ask you, do we let down our own colleagues for that? We did not join Sevenhills because of some favour granted to us. We have our own self-worth. And we have worked for it. We did not become doctors or what we are because of SevenHills. I write this letter out of desperation and hope that you will stand by me. More than me, we have to stand by each other. Otherwise we fall. With regards and hope,I had also added, more in jest: By the way, anyone planning to stand up as men (and women) can be assured of legal support! The result of this letter was totally unexpected and immature. The next day, I got a letter of termination from service with immediate effect! There was no show cause, no sticking to the contract signed while we joined the hospital, no compensation. It just showed the lack of respect towards one's employees and even arrogance on the part of the management. And there were few fellow consultants who had the courage to support me even though practically all of them disagreed with the policies of the management. It may be noted that after I left the hospital the 'stupid' satellite clinics were shortly discontinued. Moreover, the following consultants also left the hospital or were forced to do so because the management made it very unpleasant for them:1. Dr. Krishna Koka (Urologist) 2. Dr. Sameer Rajadhyaksha (Rheumatologist) 3. Dr. Archana Kher (Pediatrician) 4. Dr. Archana Juneja (Endocrinologist) 5. Dr. Ushast Dhir (Bariatric Surgeon) 6. Dr. Dilip Karnad (Senior Intensivist) 7. Dr. Rahul Pandit (Intensivist) 8. Dr. Harminder Singh (Cardiologist) 9. Dr. Rajan Shah (Neurosurgeon) 10. Dr. Kavita Rajdev (Dental Surgeon) 11. Dr. Pankhi Dutta (Hematopathologist) 12. The Infertility Specialist 13. The Neuroanesthesiologist 14. Dr. Vibhor Pardasani (Neurologist) 15. Dr. L. Prasad (Cardiac Surgeon) 16. Dr. D. Pandey (Oncologist) 17. Dr. Snehal Sriram (Cosmetologist). There must have been many more whom I've missed. That nails the shameful lie of the management:: It is true that 12 doctors have left the organization as per their own Career plans and the same positions were replaced by equally competent doctors. This happens in every organization and it is not a strange thing!:They will not be able to name even one organisation where there has been such a mass exodus of doctors and senior staff. That is why they do not reply to these articles of mine. And for the habitual lier, one extra lie is no big deal! And let me remind the readers that this exodus is after I left the organisation. Before that atleast double the number of staff had quit. That comes to the main reason for this article. We need to be united. As educated people we have differences but sometimes we have to sink our differences for the common good. We often think it is below our dignity to stand together, to be faithful to our colleagues. But I beg to differ. In fact, as the most educated staff in most organisations, we should have the guts to stand up and be counted. I do not think that those who have managed to hang on to the hospital have done anything great. In fact, many of them have played the role of sycophants. Would this sorry state of affairs have come to pass if there had been unity amoung the doctors? After all, we had joined sevenhills, leaving our previous attachments, because we wanted to make a new beginning. Dissent should be taken in the spirit in which it is made.The yes-men of the hospital are still surviving & infact even doing well. In this context, I would like to once again like to quote the words of Dr. Lalit Kapoor, Medico-legal expert of the Association of Medical Consultants: ’’Consultants need get sensitised to the above mentioned issues and to put their act together before they are relegated to being non-entities. Associations need to be empowered by the energising of the dormant majority of its laid-back, disinterested, or shall we say self-centered members who remember the Association only when they have problems. We can ignore all this only to our jeopardy’’. Do other consultants remaining in the organisation have the guts to call a lie a lie and stand up to a management which, it seems, is out to grab the land by using their political clout?
