But what Dr Zagar did not tell his Commissioner was that the “attached” HoD was running his own empire that was aimed at minting money. “When Dr Zargar saw the medicines being prescribed to the patients, he was shocked,” one insider said alleging that the junior doctors were being forced to prescribe drugs from two sub-standard companies because they were paying. “Monthly sale at one drug store is one crore rupees and around 10 percent of it would come as a cut to a particular senior,” the doctor said.
And if people decided against it, they were being punished. PG level doctors were made to fail in examinations and those not being examined by the particular teacher would be deputed permanently in ICU where the routine temperature is 37 degrees.
The overall market for the pharmaceutical companies in J&K is estimated to be around Rs 1000 crore and there are countless brands recording good businesses in lanes and by-lanes as particular doctors prescribe them. “It is huge business in Kashmir where doctors accept anything from cash to sponsored trips and in certain cases educational expenditure of their wards studying within or outside India for promoting specific drugs,” an insider in the pharma trade informed. “Whether it kills or not, I do not know.”
The new administration at the G B Path may require taking some steps immediately. There are six unions of the employees and everybody’s priority seems to be not to work. “There are instances that sweepers are wearing aprons and even driving ambulances, while paramedics send their proxies to manage their positions,” a doctor aware of the happenings said. “Even doctors are unwilling to be around the hospital at odd hours.”
