The health department has constituted a new task force comprising division-level officials for conducting raids at the six government medical colleges and hospitals, dissolving a similar team formed last year.

The first task force, christened Dhava Dal, was constituted on July 5 last year. The six-member team comprised senior-level health officers, including additional secretary R.P. Ojha.

It was assigned the responsibility to check the functioning of the government health hubs and treatment offered to patients. It had to conduct at least one raid in a month and report back to the department with the aim to improve the conditions at the government health hubs.

However, the senior officers could only conduct two raids in seven months because of their workload.

Against this backdrop, the health department decided to correct its mistakes. It dissolved the team and constituted a fresh Dhava Dal on February 26.

The new team includes K.K. Singh, regional deputy director of health services, Patna division, Madhurendra Kishore, regional deputy director of health services, Tirhut division, and Ashok Kumar Yadav, regional deputy director of health services, Darbhanga division, said Ojha, also the spokesperson of the health department.

He said: “The members of the team formed last year hardly had any time to conduct raids because they were all senior officers. So this time we decided to include people having less workload.”

Ojha also said: “The Dhava Dal had to conduct at least one raid every month but as far as I can recall only two raids were conducted at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital.”

“Based on the poor performance of the Dhava Dal, the department was forced to dissolve it. I was also one of the members. We have emergency duties apart from attending Assembly proceedings and court hearings. We can’t say no to these things. So it had become very tough for me and the other members to carry out the raids at the medical colleges,” the additional secretary added.