Former Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the ongoing turf war between Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and AIIMS Director P Venugopal, in the “interest of patients”. “I request you to appoint a committee to find out the reasons that are bothering the Health Minister while doing his duty,” says Fernandes in a letter to the PM. “The All India Institute of Medical Sciences is there to treat patients and not for the Health Minister to play with,” he adds.The letter further notes that “ever since coming to office, the Health Minister has been making the lives of these doctors at AIIMS so miserable that 90 of them have been on the verge of putting in their resignations. If this happens the loss would be that of the patients.”
