The Tamil Nadu Health Development Association (TNHDA), a registered trust functioning in the interest of the general public in relation to health and sanitation, has filed a writ petition in the High Court of Madras seeking an interim order restraining the secretary and the management of the Chennai based multi-speciality NGO hospital & research institute, Voluntary Health Services (VHS), from outsourcing services of laboratory and pharmacy after closing its own facilities at the institute.

The writ petition also seeks interim orders directing the secretary to restart the operations of pharmacy and laboratory that continued in the hospital since its inception and to stop the Consortium system implemented by him to run the hospital. It is alleged that the management is making attempt to commercialize the services of the institute which was aimed at providing on free and charitable services.

The petition submitted by Dr C S Rex Sargunam, the president of TNHDA, says that the secretary and the new management of VHS have moved away from the original concept envisioned by the founder of the hospital, late Prof. Dr K S Sanjivi, and now entered into a partnership arrangement with private institutions for the services of pharmacy, laboratory and ultra sound scan after closing down its own facilities. Besides, the secretary has stopped the three para-medical courses, Diploma in Medical Lab Technology, Diploma in Hospital Administration and Diploma in Diet & Nutrition, that VHS has been conducting for many years.

When the hospital was started in 1958, the government of Tamil Nadu gave 24 acres of land free of cost on long lease and started contributing an amount of Rs.60 lakh every year for running the hospital. In 2010 the institute got Rs.4 crores from two sources, Rs.3 crores as compensation from the highways department for acquisition of some land for widening the adjacent road and Rs.1 crore from a donor. It is alleged in the petition that the management has started a system of Consortium under which each departmental head will get certain amount of funds allotted by the management. TNHDA says that there is no need of Consortium system because it does not serve the purpose for which the institute was established.

After closing down operation in the hospital’s own pharmacy, it has been handed over to MedPlus, the retail pharma chain company to run their business in the VHS premises. Well-equipped laboratory of the hospital has now ceased to exist and the same space was occupied by Vimta Laboratory.

Mediscan Systems has got the assignments for Scan and Doppler services. All these services have been provided by the hospital till recently. The laboratory service in the VHS was on subsidized rates and the unit was making a revenue of Rs.1 lakh every month. With the closure, the institute has lost a total of Rs.12 lakhs per annum. Outsourcing of services of laboratory and pharmacy has changed the very concept of its founder and the objective of the institute, Dr Rex said in the petition.

TNHDA alleges that the management of the institute is helping private medical service providers who cannot otherwise get hospitals like the VHS for easy business. Dr Rex has further made allegation that earlier his organisation had submitted memorandum to the chief minister and to the state health minister to this effect, but the government is acting as a mute spectator.