By Our Special Correspondent
Shillong: The North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) is set to become a health care centre of choice as people from the seven states rush here especially for heart care.
The Cardiology Department of NEIGRIHMS, amongst others, has earned a name for itself. Dr Animesh Mishra and Dr Manish Kapoor have both become household names and have the implicit trust of patients here.
Recently, Dr AG Ahangar, a cardio-thoracic surgeon of renown from Kashmir, who was also part of the inspecting team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) joined as Director. He has been on his feet ever since in trying to address the problems that the Institute had been facing under care-taker directors, one of whom left under mysterious circumstances without as much as a farewell from his colleagues and staff.
Dr Ahangar, an experienced cardiac surgeon comes across as a dynamic administrator as well. “When I joined there were about 600 files that were pending decision. I cleared those files in two days because each decision has a bearing on the Institute and on the staff and faculty of NEIGRIHMS,” Dr Ahangar said adding that his vision is to make NEIGRIHMS a global destination for health care- a leader in health care and not just a follower.
NEIGRIHMS which had been struggling to fulfil its mandate as a health care centre, an undergraduate medical college and post graduate research centre was facing the real possibility of its MBBS degree not being recognised by the Medical Council of India as there was shortage of faculty and other lacunae.
“These shortcomings are being addressed. I am requesting the Union Health Ministry to raise the number of undergraduate seats to 100 from the present strength of 50. If we get 100 seats it will be our endeavour to reserve three seats for the children of the faculty and four seats for the children of the staff. After all, even the child of a fourth grade employee has the right to study medicine and become a doctor one day,” Dr Ahangar said.
There are plans to have cottages in the vicinity where patients needing long-term attention could recuperate and be treated without the additional cost and trauma of being taken home, especially when distances are huge and the patient has to be brought to NEIGRIHMS for repeated treatment. This is both expensive and difficult for the patient, Dr Ahangar explained.
The NEIGRIHMS Director also shared his vision of creating a trauma centre and several other centres of excellence such as Nephrology, Neurology etc. He is also keen to have an air ambulance service where patients can be airlifted. NEIGRIHMS had been mulling the creation of an air landing strip close to the Institute for a while now.
One of the significant initiatives at NEIGRIHMS is the ‘Grand Rounds’ where doctors gather at the auditorium on Saturdays to share their best practices one week and worst case scenarios the other week.
“It’s a sort of medical audit where we can all learn from the expertise and best practices of some doctors and also the medical mishaps of others. When a patient dies we would like to hear what all measures have been taken to provide him/her the best possible care and to see if there are lapses that could have been avoided,” Dr Ahangar said.
The new Director was quite appalled to find that Christmas holidays here extend into the New Year. “Disease has no calendar, so we doctors, nurses and other assistants cannot afford to relax or take a holiday. I myself start work at 9 am and go home after 9 pm every day. Sometimes those attending the casualty ward take their work most casually. This is not what a medical Institute like NEIGRIHMS should be. We are trying to bring all-round improvement and there is cooperation from all quarters so I am sure we will succeed to raise the stature of NEIGRHIMS,” Dr Ahangar quipped confidently.
Meanwhile patients and their wards coming from different states were all praise for NEIGRIHMS. A person from Nagaland said, “Meghalaya is so fortunate to have this Institution and I am envious of you people. Naga politicians and bureaucrats have money so they can go to Escorts and private hospitals where they are given preferential treatment but what about the common people? There is no state of the art hospital in Nagaland.”
Those from Manipur and Mizoram also echo the same feelings. Hopefully NEIGRHIMS will fulfil their aspirations.
Dr Ahangar, however, rued the bad roads to NEIGRIHMS and the road communication over these badly maintained roads. “We need to have an airport in Meghalaya. This will reduce distances significantly and this will add to NEIGRIHMS’ positive points.”