Apollo takes over Chittoor Government General Hospital

​Chittoor: First-of-its-kind in the State, the Apollo Hospitals Group has taken over the 300-bed Government General Hospital (GGH) in Chittoor, from where Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu hails.

The MoU with the government in attaching the GGH to Apollo Hospitals Group came into force from Tuesday. The Apollo has already deputed its medical officers and lab technicians here a fortnight ago in order to get familiar with working conditions and to undertake steps for implementing its corporate strategies.

Since the first day, lab technicians of both sides said to have sparred on their duties despite the Resident Medical Officer Dr P Sandhya making efforts to pacify both sides. There is a lack of coordination between both groups while the employees of the hospital have made it very clear to the State government that they would not tolerate the authority of any private corporate hospital.

The State government entered into an agreement with Apollo Group to handover the GGH on a lease for three years under the clinical attachment. The Apollo Hospitals Group, which acquired land for construction of its own building in Chittoor town, would use the premises of the government hospital for teaching purpose to avail 150 medical seats.

It will appoint teaching staff who, apart from teaching, would attend to the patients too. The Apollo Group will provide modern equipment to this government hospital during its functioning from the premises. After completion of three years, the Apollo would go for construction of its own hospital buildings.

Speaking to The Hans India on Tuesday, Senior Specialist Dr. Arunkumar of the GGH made it clear that no official communication has been received from the AP Vaidya Vidhana Parishad in respect of the terms and conditions to be followed by the medical officers of the hospital vis a vis the management of the Apollo Hospitals Group.

"During the recent visit of Dr. Jayachandra Reddy, Joint Director, APVVP to Piler, we expressed our doubts regarding our services and the chances of promotion in future after attaching the Chittoor Government Hospital to the Apollo Group.

The Joint Director gave us clear-cut assurance that there would be no variation of the present system of the Government Hospital in respect of our salaries, services and duties,” he added. Arunkumar further said that most of the medical officers working here have their own doubts over the government's decision of attaching it to a corporate hospital.

He felt that the decision of the government would certainly be an opportunity for this hospital to expand its services and ensure best and qualified service to the patients. "We are supposed to work anywhere. We can get number of faculties and highly modernised equipment here. Hence the government’s decision is to be welcomed by one and all.

Coordination would be strengthened among the employees of both organisations in due course. The main objective of the medical officers of both sides is to render better and valued services to the patients," he said.