Pune: Joint director of health services (hospitals) Dr Sunita Golhait on April 17 issued a directive initiating disciplinary action against district civil surgeons, additional civil surgeons and medical superintendents across the state for alleged negligence in monitoring hospital diet services after flagging multiple administrative lapses, officials said on Wednesday.
The action is taken under Rule 8 of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1979, for negligence and dereliction of duty. Besides, charge sheets should be issued against them, and a report submitted to the health commissioner’s office immediately, said Dr Golhait.
According to officials, food is provided to thousands of indoor patients throughout the state in the following facilities — 19 district hospitals, 368 rural hospitals, 101 sub-district hospitals, 22 women’s hospitals, 4 mental hospitals, 8 general hospitals, 2 leprosy hospitals, 5 TB hospitals, and 40 trauma care centres associated with rural hospitals.
The health department, as per the work orders issued on October 19 and 20, 2022, has allotted contracts for hospital diet services for a three-year period to private contractors.
As per the contractual conditions, a diet service monitoring committee has to be set up under the chairmanship of the additional district civil surgeon or hospital medical superintendent. The committee is mandated to conduct monthly inspections, collect raw material and food samples, and send them to district public health laboratories for quality testing. Besides, regular medical check-ups of the cooking staff have to be conducted.
However, officials found that in several institutions, these committees were either not constituted or failed to function as required.
Dr Golhait said, “The food service continued without any laboratory reports, and payments to the contractor were released without proper verification.”
A senior health department official on request of anonymity said, “These are serious lapses.”
According to officials, the move follows a series of letters from the health commissionerate and the health minister’s office between January 2025 and April 2026, highlighting irregularities and seeking explanations from officials.
