Madurai, August 28: A feat by a team of doctors in the government hospital here operating 14 cancer patients in three-and-half hours may have won them instant fame but the Tamil Nadu Government has taken exception to it and ordered an inquiry.
Health Secretary V K Subburaj said in Chennai that he had also sought an explanation from the Dean of Government Rajaji Hospital on the feat achieved recently. State Director of Medical Education Dr S Vinayagam would conduct the inquiry.
The hospital had held a press conference on August 25 to announce the feat by a team of 25 doctors led by Surgical Oncology Department head Mohan Prasad.
Hospital officials, however, said they chose to publicise the record effort by its surgeons to create awareness about the facilities in the hospital.
It should have been taken in right spirit and approached positively. There had been a backlog of patients needing surgeries. “We took all precautions, arranged for all the infrastructure before operating the patients. We did not do it for a feat. It was incidentally found to be a feat when it was checked on the internet,” doctors said referring to the move to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.
“It is possible to do operations for 14 patients if arrangements are ready. We have not done something impossible.
It is a feat. What is wrong in claiming credit for it?,” said a member of Indian Medical Association.
—Agencies