Historic first: 3 women doctors appointed directors of Delhi's top central govt hospitals
New Delhi: Making history, three women doctors will now run three of Delhi's biggest central government hospitals- Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.
On Friday, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued orders appointing Dr. Akhilandeshwari Prasad as the director of ABVIMS and Dr. RML Hospital, Dr. Himani Ahluwalia as the director of LHMC, and Dr. Kavita Rani Sharma as the Director of VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital.
While Dr. Prasad is a senior consultant in Radio Diagnosis, Dr. Ahluwalia is a director professor of physiology and Dr. Sharma is a director professor of anaesthesia.
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An MBBS gold medalist from Lady Hardinge Medical College, Dr. Prasad pursued her MD in radiodiagnosis from RML Hospital. As per the latest media report by the Times of India, she has been associated with RML Hospital and ABVIMS for nearly three decades serving different academic and administrative roles, including as the head of radiodiagnosis. Dr. Prasad has been appointed as ABVIMS and Dr RML Hospital head with immediate effect
Dr. Ahluwalia is a senior professor and head of the Physiology department at VMMC. She will take charge as the director of Lady Hardinge Medical College on July 9. She has extensive experience in both academics and the field of research.
A director professor of anaesthesia, Dr. Sharma has been appointed director of VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital with immediate effect. She took charge from the outgoing Director Dr. Sandeep Bansal. TOI has reported that Dr. Sharma had earlier been given the additional charge as the director of VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital this March.
Speaking to TOI, Dr. Sharma said that Safdarjang is among the largest tertiary care institutes across the country as it caters to around 13,000 OPD patients each day and it also has several super-speciality departments. Commenting on her new role, she said that her focus would be on strengthening patient care, medical education and research.
Dr. Prasad told the Daily that her priorities as the director of RML Hospital would include strengthening patient-focused care, ensuring uninterrupted essential services, operationalising the super-specialty block, modernising infrastructure and accelerating integrated paperless healthcare systems. She also aims to strengthen teaching, research and clinical training while expanding the institution’s healthcare and academic capacities.
As per Ministry officials, appointments of three women doctors as the heads of three of Delhi’s largest and busiest govt-run tertiary care institutions, for the first time, reflect the growing presence of women in leadership positions within India’s public healthcare and medical education system, which has been traditionally dominated by male administrators and senior clinicians.
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