MDA govt urge Centre to institute inquiry into NEIGRIHMS crisis

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 12, 2019

SHILLONG: The state government has urged the centre to institute a high level enquiry committee into the crisis in the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS). 

“I request the chief minister to propose to the government of India to institute a high level enquiry committee for free and fair enquiry to resolve the issue of the NEIGRIHMS hospital,” health minister AL Hek told the Assembly on Thursday. 

He said the committee should include representatives from the state, senior officials from the central government and technical experts from any big institute like AIIMS, while replying during a short duration discussion on the issue initiated by Mawphlang MLA SK Sunn. 

According to him, there are so many claims and counter claims and several reports from the director of NEIGRIHMS and also counter reports from the Head of cardiology department on all the problems and incidents that had taken place in the institute. 

The minister said the state government has executed its powers and discretion to the extent possible to streamline the functioning of NEIGRIHMS and resolve issues and crisis. 

In earlier occasion, he said the chief minister and him as health minister have personally met the union health minister JP Nadda in New Delhi and apprised him of the state of affairs in NEIGRIHMS. 

“It has now learnt that the central bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also conducted searches in NEIGRIHMS on August 30. It is understood that some documents have been seized (by CBI). We are awaiting any further reports on the matter,” Hek said. 

NEIGRIHMS was declared as an ‘institution of excellence’ by an act of parliament on January 4, 2007. 

Earlier, Sunn said while the governments of the North eastern states have much at stake to ensure that the institute flourishes, the Meghalaya government has a much bigger role to play in this matter since the institute is at a stone’s throw away from the state capital itself and the people of the state stand to benefit more from the services that the institute provides. 

He said the institute appears to be under some sort of problem since 2017 and asked the state government not to allow the NEIGRIHMS to wither away. 

The MLA also said after the incumbent director Dr DM Thappa joined the institute in April 2017, it is learned that the administration came upwith a vacation schedule that left the institute without doctors in critical departments because there was not enough faculty strength in many departments. 

According to him, while number of major surgeries conducting during 2016-17 was 4,034, the number of major surgeries conducted dropped to 3,803 during 2017-18. 

It is also learned that the post graduate programmes conducted by the institutes, have been de-recognized by the medical council of india (MCI), he said while adding that the major flaw pointed out by the MCI was that the department of general surgery and anesthesia have not performed adequate number of operations. 

Sunn said this could have been remdied by increasing the number of operating days which is a feasible option, considering that infrastructure is available and in place. “Instead of that, the director amalgated the super specialty surgical branch with general surgery without taking into consideration that this is a violation of MCI guidelines,” he said. 

He also alleged that the governing council of the institute has also remained dormant for more than four years and this could be one of the primary reasons that led to occurences of a number of such unfortunate events in the institute. 

On the concern expressed by Sunn  that the state is yet to establish the state medical council, health minister informed that the department is already in the process.