Editor,
The last few weeks have highlighted some incidents and facts related to the medical services and fraternity in Meghalaya. We have had incidents of reported medical negligence, non-functional X-Ray machines and also of callousness on the part of many. The incidents of negligence (as reported) in the media needs to be thoroughly investigated and facts made public so that no one repeats the same again. I have heard versions from the medical fraternity and it does not corroborate even a bit with the reported incidents. So we all need to know the actual facts and the truth has to be revealed. Another very important and pathetic revelation is the non functioning X-Ray machines in Jaintia Hills (East and West) It is very sad that such costly and essential investigative items have been out of order and are non-functional from the very minute of their being installed, for various stupid reasons. It took 13 years of its non utility and non function to reveal this matter and now instead of rectifying it we have a process of procurement of new machines to replace the old. The persons responsible for procuring these costly and essential machines without doing a detailed study on its utilization need to be brought to book and punished. If in service they should be held accountable and if retired necessary steps taken for refund. We also need to know whether the new machines will their purpose unless we analyse the causes which led to their disaster earlier. Have we addressed the matters of recruitment of qualified personnel to operate these machines? Have we the necessary X-Ray films , developers ,chemicals to develop the films? Have we solved the problem of regular, uninterrupted power supply etc? People in Jaintia Hills (East And West ) have suffered a lot all these years for want of a simple X-Ray machine and they need this facility now. I sincerely hope the state medical fraternity comes up with new and long term ideas to solve this and similar problems soon.
Personally I feel medical service in Meghalaya need to be separated from other services as it a totally different specialty. We cannot expect a person from another stream like humanities, engineering, etc to head the Health Department as Commissioner/Secretary and to do justice to the Department as there are various aspects and technicalities which cannot be explained to him and which should be under a medico only. We do not lack qualified and competent medical personnel in this state and with a Chief Minister who is a medico at the helm of affairs I feel that the medical scenario in the state can change for the better if he takes some drastic and timely steps. We have to modify many national programmes and systems run in our state based according to the medical needs of the people especially the rural population. 80% of Meghalaya lives in the villages but we have good medical facilities in towns only. How can we expect a common villager to stop his daily chores, arrange funds for transport and stay for availing medical treatment in towns as basic health care is not up to mark in rural areas? We cannot always blame the doctors for not providing basic health care as from above mentioned facts we can infer that basic investigations are either not available or if available not functioning properly in the peripheral health set ups. I sincerely call upon the medical fraternity to take it upon themselves to remember their oath towards the sick and needy and for the government machinery to looks into their needs sympathetically so that the dream of better medical care for all is no longer a dream only in Meghalaya.
Yours etc.,
Dr R.S.Bawa,
Via email