Patna, Jan. 13: Firm on stopping the private practice of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) doctors, the state government is planning to ask the vigilance to conduct an inquiry into the issue.

“We have received several complaints about the evil practice and are thinking of assigning the task of taking action against errant medics to a government agency. It could be vigilance too. The agency will identify the defaulters and book them for breach of service terms,” said a senior health department official.

Complaints have been pouring in about several doctors not taking interest in the hospital duty. They allegedly remain busy with private practice in gross violation of the terms and conditions of their service.

“From the day an employee — right from a peon to the director — of the institution signs a bond to work at IGIMS, it is testified that he/she will not indulge in any kind of commercial activity anywhere else. The term clearly says that if anybody is found doing so, they will be terminated from service with immediate effect. It also applies to doctors here. But more than half of them do so and no action has been initiated against any of them ever,” said a source.

On being asked why the hospital administration had failed to act on the complaints, IGIMS director Dr Arun Kumar cited lack of machinery as the reason.

“I have been receiving complaints against several doctors but I do not have the machinery or evidence to nail them,” said Kumar.

The doctors against whom the charges have been openly levelled were not available for comments.

According to sources, around 30 senior doctors of the health hub indulge in private practice. A few days back, health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey had warned the doctors at the institution against the unscrupulous practice.

“Those who are more interested in private practice can put in their papers. You cannot have best of both worlds,” Choubey had said at a function on the IGIMS campus, addressing a gathering of doctors.

Sources said doctors perform their duty in the outpatients department (OPD) properly but hardly pay attention to the indoor patients. “OPD is the catchment area of the doctors. They consult patients there and ask them to visit their clinics or homes,” the source said.

Most of the doctors maintain utmost secrecy about private practice. Most of them run clinics at home. But the signboards outside do not clearly suggest that they run clinics there.

“The doctors attached to nursing homes and private hospitals do not have their names mentioned on the panel of consultants. They do not even have names on prescriptions and give initials on them,” the source said.

“It is difficult to establish their involvement in private practice but not impossible. There have been several complaints against some doctors but no disciplinary action has been taken against any of them. If a probe team raids the places where they practice, the errant doctors can be caught,” the source added.