Gupta quits but doctors want him to stay on

PORT Moresby General Hospital chief executive Dr Umesh Gupta has resigned “for family reasons”, although doctors want him to stay back and complete his term.
The hospital’s board chairman, Sir Theophilus Constantinou, in a notice dated April 12 announced the resignation and praised Gupta for what he had done for the health service.
“For the past two years and a half, Gupta has provided strong leadership on expanding clinical services towards attainment of a Level 7 classification, and on the disciplined execution of plans on a limited hospital budget,” Sir Theophilus said.
Gupta said in a statement he was met with an “extremely hostile staff” when he joined the hospital in August 2014.
“Even threats on Facebook were issued by members of the National Doctors’ Association. (But) through patience and repeated demonstration of my knowledge and skills as well as consensus building, I have been able to win over the entire country’s medical fraternity. In fact I can say with the sense of achievement that the doctors of PNG are today my biggest supporters,” Gupta said.
Meanwhile, the National Doctors’ Association wants Gupta to complete his term.
Association president Dr James Naipao said they want him to complete the tasks “his management team have started for the benefit of patients who have difficulty accessing treatment overseas”.
He said the association in the past two and a half years had seen Gupta’s never-say-die attitude.
“He aggressively gets things done. He has a deep understanding of patient quality care, a high understanding of clinical and corporate governance,” Naipao said.
“Patients’ satisfaction went up to 92 per cent, the hospital mortality reduced by 60 per cent, average length of stay reduced to seven days with emergency department to 18 hours, new services which included the construction of a cath lab, cancer and dialysis facilities, and six more theatre rooms were planned to bring the total number up to 10 to reduce backlogs that were experienced.”