The ongoing management row over Chennai based Devaki Hospital has taken a fresh twist with the state health department deciding to probe the alleged irregularities in kidney transplants done at the hospital.

The State Health secretary Sheela Rani Chunkath has directed the director of Medical Services to submit a detailed report on the transplants held at the hospital, condition of donors and the authenticity of the documents produced during transplants, based on several complaints, it is learnt.

According to Chithra Chockalingam, chairperson and managing director of Devaki Hospital, its nephrology department, 'currently run by an outside agency', had violated laws and discarded ethics while conducting several kidney transplants. She alleged many of the patients who came to the hospital were never taken to the authorization committee, and the recipients got married to young village girls for the sake of the surgery. (As per the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994, the donor and the recipient have to get approval from the state authorization committee if the two are not blood related or are not married).

Chithra Chockalingam said she had received several complaints on the transplants, and alleged the doctors at the nephrology department 'were preying on dialysis patients and their relatives coming to the Devaki Hospital. The CMD had surrendered the renal transplant license to the government citing reasons of 'unscrupulous and unethical behaviour of the doctors in the department' on 8th August 2003.

She also said the ongoing problems have delayed implementing a Rs.1000 crore hospital cum-medical college and shopping mall project, a joint venture with an Australian firm and a few other individuals. She hoped the project, that would offer jobs to over 8000 people, would come up within the next three years.

The Department of Renal Medicine at Devaki Hospital is said to have a capacity to perform about 10-15 kidney transplants in a month, and has done 2700 transplantations since 1998 at a rate of 2-3 transplants per week.

Meanwhile, Dr KC Reddy, Dr CM Thiagarajan and Dr Salim Thomas, promoters of Madras Medical Care & Health Centre and doctors at the nephrology department of the Devaki hospital, said they were ready to face any enquiry on the alleged irregularities in kidney transplants. Though the doctors linked the allegations to the management battle, preferred to refrain from commenting further as the matter could be subjudice as many cases were going on in various courts.

It is to be noted the 100 bedded Devaki Hospital, started in 1972 by Dr Chockalingam, went public in 1992 and subsequently became a listed corporate hospital, with a current five-member board of directors including Dr Chockalingam, Chithra Chockalingam (CMD), Deepa Chockalingam, Dr Ratnasabapathy and Dr CR Soundarrajan. Padmasree Dr JM Cherian, who was a nominated board member of Dhanalakshmi Bank, had resigned last year.

The management row had intensified when the Madras Medical Care & Health Centre Pvt. Ltd., which has 10.21 per cent equity of the hospital, made an open offer recently for 40 per cent of the equity to gain management control. The hospital was said to be doing well until a year ago, with surplus after operational costs. The revenues have dipped marginally in the last few years and the hospital is in red, according to sources. It is alleged that several bills were pending to the customers, and the Punjab National Bank had written to the Board of Directors asking to cite reasons for not initiating legal action for dishonouring numerous cheques worth several lakhs. The hospital has become an NPA with the bank. During October, last year, a team of the PF Department, headed by the Chennai Provident Fund Commissioner, had raided the hospital, and had seized several documents related to maintenance of PF accounts.

A few months ago, the Board of Directors had passed a resolution to remove the CMD under Section 295 and had filed a suit to remove the CMD. Madras Medical Care & Health Centre, a minority stake holder, also had filed a suit with the Madras High Court against the management citing mismanagement under 397 and 398 of Companies Act. On 9th of January, this year, the CMD had filed a police complaint against the doctors of nephrology department for harassing her.