The tug of war between the Director NEIGRIHMS and the Department of Cardiology has now subsided. But it is unfortunate that matters had come to a flashpoint, requiring the intervention of the Meghalaya High Court since many patients requiring surgery were kept waiting for no fault of theirs. NEIGRIHMS is a premier health institute modeled along the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the first of its kind in the North Eastern region. It serves the people of all seven North Eastern states. The Department of Cardiology has been its flagship Department. Since April 30 NEIGRIHMS was in the middle of a storm. For days the Cardiology Department could not operate on patients because the Director of the Institute seized all equipments on allegations that the Head of Department (Cardiology) was not procuring the required materials such as stents, pacemakers etc ., from the Amrit Pharmacy at discounted rates. This allegation has been shot down during the court hearing where it was explained by the HOD Cardiology that those materials were of inferior quality and insufficient to meet the needs of the Department. The Meghalaya High Court has directed the Cardiology Department to start functioning immediately even as matters are to be sorted out in the presence of a senior personnel of the Union Health Ministry.
NEIGRIHMS has been left orphaned by the state governments of the seven states and also by the North Eastern Council. They should have intervened when they saw the Institute being dragged into the news for the wrong reasons. The Institute has a Governing Council which has not met even once in the last four years. Yet none of the members are raising a stink over this. Actually members are appointed to governing boards so that they can track the performance of the institution. What’s the point of appointing inactive members? It’s as good as not having a governing board. This is the first lapse. Secondly, several doctors have resigned in frustration since the incumbent Director joined. There is at present acute shortage of doctors; so much so that even the undergraduate MBBS courses do not have sufficient teachers. This does not bode well for NEIGRIHMS. In every institute of repute, employees who resign are normally asked to give an exit interview in writing, stating their reasons for leaving. This helps the Institute to improve its workplace situation. It will be interesting to know if NEIGRIHMS has such a policy and if so what the doctors who have left have to say. That should give us a fair idea of the situation.