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

"I have become sick", a visibly agitated minister told journalists after his "hands-on" morning in the hospital. What prompted the minister to embark on his odyssey were the scathing reports on the state of the burns ward in the day's newspapers. On an impulse he decided to check it out for himself.

Accompanied by the Health Secretary K.B. Saxena and other officials, the Minister descended on the OPD ward of the Hospital at 10.30 this morning.

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 goes as a hospital and one of the 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 Ezhilmalai.

The Medical Superintendent R.K. Srivastava appeared sans his medical coat or name tag. And the lack of professionalism this symbolised seemed to be the norm. Most of the 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 rusting away unused. Even minor repairs which would restore the machines are not carried out. "The entire approach is casual. A cavalier attitude and utter callousness towards the patients who come from miles around for treatment in the Capital city", he said.

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 up.

"I come from a village. I know what is hygiene, cleanliness, sanitation", said Ezhilmalai. "Nowhere does this look like a hospital".

The maintenance of the hospital buildings and its utilities is undertaken by the CPWD, which is not accountable to the hospital authorities. Point out the dungeon-like conditions in the hospital, and the doctors in turn blame it on the CPWD for the prevaling chaos. The PWD, of course, goes scotfree.

The hospital authorities are entitled to hire one hundred security personnel and according to the rolls, there are over 200 security guards employed, yet the Minister could not spot a single security guard on duty.

In the blood bank, things were much worse: a pall of musty gloom thanks to poor ventilation and an air of disuse due to spare gas cylinders stored in the blood bank.

Each year the government spends Rs 40 crore on Safdarjung hospital, said the Minister, wondering what could be done to revamp the hospital. ``Or else we will have to face the wrath of the people someday".

But for all his anger and angst, the minister himself realises there is not much he can do. Any precipitate action and he would be landed with a strike on his hands. "I have requested them as my brothers to help me restore the hospital to its glory", said Ezhilmalai in an appeasing tone.

He has given the hospital authorities one month to get their act together and clean up the hospital. "If they want they can do it in 24 hours. I have asked them what they want -- money, facilities, additional help from PWD. We can set things right".A month from now he has promised to visit the hospital again to see what changes have followed from his efforts today. Sceptical Delhi residents could give him the picture now itself.