By Joseph Maliakan
The Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) is a mono-super specialty hospital for liver and biliary diseases established by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, located at Vasant Kunj in South West Delhi. However, the poor have no access to its facilities. On 9 December 2025, Jitendra, a 24-year-old electrician working at I.P. Extension Delhi, who had undergone a kidney transplant in 2022, was taken ill and admitted to Indraprasta Apollo Hospital New Delhi, where his kidney transplant was carried out. Unable to bear the huge expenses at the Indraprasta Apollo Hospital, where the daily expenses came to Rs.80,000, Jitender’s uncle Khemchand, also an electrician, took him to the ILBS at around 6 p.m. on 11 December. At the hospital casualty, the duty doctor demanded a deposit of Rs. 75000 (seventy-five thousand rupees) before he could be admitted. When I, a veteran journalist who has extensively covered health in Delhi for decades, contacted the hospital and wondered how a Delhi government hospital could charge such a huge amount from a poor scheduled caste boy, the doctor on duty said that was the normal practice at the hospital. The deposit is being asked on the instructions of the Director of ILBS, Dr. S. K. Sarin, who was not available for comments. From ILBS Jitender was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which also declined to admit him. On 12 December, though Jitender was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital casualty in the afternoon at midnight in the biting cold when his condition became critical, he was discharged. He was then taken to a private hospital, Nexis Multispeciality Hospital and Research Centre, NOIDA, where he breathed his last at 5.30 a.m. on 15 December. Jitender could have been saved if any of the three publicly funded hospitals, ILBS, AIIMS, or Safdarjung Hospital, had treated him. Complaints to the Union Health Ministry regarding the blatant negligence by the government hospitals that led to young Jitender’s death have not yielded any results so far. One of the main complaints against the leading government hospitals in Delhi is that all of them foster a ‘VIP culture.’ The super special facilities in the government hospitals are only accessible to VIPs, ministers, members of parliament and legislative assemblies, top bureaucrats, and police officials. One of the very serious complaints against the ILBS is that the Institute runs on a revenue-sharing model where doctors, like in the extremely exploitative private sector, receive incentives tied to their respective patient billing. This has resulted in doctors advising unnecessary and expensive tests. Admission to ventilator or ICU facilities at the ILBS can cost up to Rupees One lakh a day, which is similar to private hospitals. There have been complaints about patients being charged different rates for the same procedure depending upon the status (how important a person is). The amount charged for the same procedure varies between Rs. 3000 and 25000! Another controversy regarding ILBS concerns the continuation of Dr. S.K. Sarin as the Director of the Institute since its inception in 2010 till now. The appointment of Dr. Sarin, a renowned hepatologist and a Padma Bhushan, stemmed from the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) cadre, where the retirement age is 65. He was initially appointed as Director on 20 April 2010 for a five-year term. This was followed by a series of extensions as Director. Further, Dr. Sarin was appointed Vice-Chancellor on 3rd May 2018 until age 70 and Chancellor on 20 August 2022 for a five-year term. Dr. Sarin’s extensions and appointments critics say never followed rules and regulations mandated by the University Grants Commission. There have been efforts to find a replacement for Dr. Sarin. Advertisements to fill the director’s post were issued twice. In July 2024, interviews to fill the director’s post were held. It was attended by a few eminent candidates; however, the result was held up, paving the way for further extensions to Dr. Sarin. The ILBS, funded by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, is an autonomous institution with deemed university status granted by the University Grants Commission. The Lt. Governor of Delhi is the appointing authority of the Institute. However, the ILBS today has a very unusual governance structure where one person has, by hook or crook, remained at its helm from its inception in 2009 till today, that is, for 17 years! Only an impartial inquiry into the affairs of the ILBS will reveal the truth. In the meantime it is learned that a number of people at the receiving end of the mismanagement at the ILBS have filed petitions in the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court demanding a court-supervised inquiry into the affairs of the publicly funded hospital.
