Medical panel of Dr Singh remembers him as ‘Epitome of courtesy and an obedient patient’

The former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who recently took his last breath was an epitome of courtesy, remembers the doctors of his medical panel.

Soon after becoming the prime minister, had himself carried a small table for us to have tea comfortably at his Safdarjung Lane residence instead of asking his house help,” Dr Srinath Reddy, who was the chairperson of the PM’s medical panel, recalled. This was just days before Dr Singh moved to the 7 Race Course Road, the PM’s official residence, which was then being readied, said Dr Reddy, as he remembered the erudite yet remarkably humble man who shepherded India into an era of economic liberalisation.

Dr Singh, who was the prime minister for two terms between 2004 and 2014 died on Thursday at AIIMS, Delhi at the age of 92. His mortal remains were consigned to flames at the Nigam Bodh Ghat here on Saturday amid the chanting of religious hymns. The funeral pyre was lit by his eldest daughter Upinder Singh. Dr Reddy, the former head of the Department of Cardiology at AIIMS, Delhi, who had known Dr Singh since 2004 remembered him as a polite patient who would always follow medical advice.


Dr Reddy, who had served as the personal physician of former PM Narasimha Rao, said he could not become the personal physician of Dr Singh in 2004, despite a request from the prime minister’s office, since he had by then become the head of the department of Cardiology at the Delhi AIIMS.

He, however, recommended names of “very competent and conscientious” cardiologists Dr Nitish Naik and Dr Ambuj Roy from the premier hospital to be Dr Singh’s personal physician and alternate physician.

Owing to Dr Reddy’s experience of the system of the PM’s healthcare since Rao’s time, a medical panel was constituted, nonetheless, under him with Dr Naik, Dr Roy, and Dr Nikhil Tandon, Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the AIIMS as members.