The minister has just spent an eye-opening five-and-a-half hours at the Capital's Safdarjung Hospital in what was truly a ``surprise'' visit -- both for the doctors and for Ezhimalai himself.

``I have become sick,'' a visibly agitated minister told mediapersons after his `hands-on' morning tour of the hospital.

What prompted the minister to embark on his odyssey were the scathing reports on the state of the burns ward in Safdarjung hospital in the day's newspapers. On an impulse, he decided to check it out for himself.Accompanied by Health Secretary K B Saxena and other officials, the minister descended on the OPD ward of the Hospital at 10.30 am today.

What the minister found was what Delhi residents have always known -- dilapidated buildings, stinking and leaking toilets, cockroach and rodent-ridden wards: a crumbling edifice that passes itself off as a hospital and one ofthe busiest ones in the Capital at that.

``Drainage pipes were broken and leaking. Toilets, which had been without electricity for months. Some toilets without water. The stench was unbearable,'' said Ezhimalai. Medical Superintendent R K Srivastava appeared sans his medical coat and name tag. And the lack of professionalism this symbolised seemed to be the norm. Most doctors were dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts and none of them were wearing the mandatory doctor's coat. The minister's education was painful. Expensive medical equipment was found rusting away unused. Even minor repairs which would restore the machines had not been carried out. Opening doors, peeking into cupboards, checking on the hospital's vehicles, walking into unlit, unventilated toilets, vetting account books, looking up attendance registers, stock books of kitchen equipment and medical supplies: everywhere the story was the same. ``Indiscipline, maladminstration and mismanagement,'' as the minister succinctly summed it up.

Butfor all his anger and angst, the minister realises there is not much he can do. Any precipitate action and he would have a strike on his hands. ``I have requested them as my brothers to help me restore the hospital to its glory,'' said Ezhimalai in an appeasing tone.