Patna: World-class hospitals are not established by constructing buildings, but by having a team of dedicated and zealous doctors, paramedics and nursing staff; appointments to 214 posts at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) are entangled in red tape; cattle are brought to graze inside its campus.

Home truths bared by IGIMS director N.R. Biswas, speaking in his slightly rustic Hindi delivered with a Bengali accent, to an audience on Thursday that included chief minister Nitish Kumar.

"I saw the plan to develop Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH)," Biswas said, pointing to the state government's move to make it a 5,000-bed, state-of-the-art facility as Nitish listened quietly at a function organised at IGIMS to lay the foundation of the State Cancer Institute on Thursday evening. "But building is not the hospital. Doctors, attendants, nurses are the hospital. They should be dedicated and zealous. You need a project director for PMCH development plans," Biswas added.

Switching back to the condition at IGIMS, Biswas narrated how the appointment process at his institution has got entangled in red tape.

"More faculty, more residents are needed. However, appointments to 214 posts have to be done, but files pertaining to it are just going here and there. Some reservation roster has to be cleared. Sir, please expedite it," Biswas requested Nitish. Also present were health minister Mangal Pandey, principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, a large number of doctors, medical and nursing students.

Biswas also stressed on the importance of good salary to doctors to stop them from moving to other hospitals that are coming up in the state.

" Gai ko hara chara dene se khoob doodh milega, sukha chara dene se doodh kam hoga (If you give green fodder to a cow, it will give ample milk, but if you give dry fodder to it, milk will not be much). Similarly, doctors should be given better salary, else they will go to other hospitals like AIIMS or others that are coming up here," Biswas added, prompting applause and laughter from the audience for his candid talk.

In the recent months, four doctors working at IGIMS have left for greener pastures. Three of them have joined AIIMS-Patna.

Biswas also demanded that IGIMS be made a world-class facility and requested Nitish to add it to his "seven resolves for a developed Bihar".

Narrating his woes, he said ministers and legislators all demand ICU facilities for their people, but his priority was the last person in the queue.

"This is because those who have money can go to private hospitals for treatment, but the poor won't be able to avail such facilities," Biswas said, drawing more applause.

The director added that he had thought of IGIMS to be an oasis in the desert, but went on to say that so much green grass is within the campus that cattle come to graze.

He also remembered how he had tried to meet Nitish after joining IGIMS, but Anjani Kumar Singh, currently the chief secretary, had told him that he (Nitish) was tired and resting.

Another term

Biswas's tenure is going to end next year February and Nitish, while speaking on the occasion, revealed that the government had made up its mind to give him another term, and "keep him here as long as it's possible".