SHILLONG: Three cardiac surgeries were performed at NEIGRIHMS on Thursday after an interval of about a week, but concerns over regular availability of devices like stents and pacemakers remained even as a 55-year-old woman patient’s condition turned critical triggering tension in the institute.
Hospital sources said the woman was admitted in the hospital on May 5 following a heart attack and she was supposed to be operated upon on the same day. Her condition, however, deteriorated and she was put on ventilator as the surgery could not be carried out.
Till the time of filing of this report on Thursday evening, materials required for performing the surgery were not available forcing a deferment until these are made available.
The surgeries on Thursday were performed at the directive of the High Court of Meghalaya on Wednesday. The court passed the order on a PIL filed by senior advocate SP Mahanta seeking an end to the stalemate in the Cardiology department.
A high level meeting also ordered by the court was held in NEIGRIHMS on Thursday to sort out the differences between the Cardiology department and the administration that brought surgeries to a halt last week with doctors claiming that devices like stents and pacemakers were not being made available.
The meeting was chaired by additional chief secretary RV Suchiang and attended by joint secretary, Union Health Ministry Gayatri Mishra, state health secretary Pravin Bakshi, NEIGRIHMS Director DM Thappa, HoD, CardiologyAnimesh Mishra and other doctors of the department besides representatives of AMRIT pharmacy.
Sources claimed the impasse was resolved and three surgeries were performed by Cardiology department but the materials had to be procured from outside agencies as these were not available at the AMRIT pharmacy.
It was decided at the meeting that AMRIT pharmacy would procure the inventory within five to six hours and accordingly the Cardiology department submitted its list of requirements.
It was also decided that if medicines and materials required for surgeries are not available at AMRIT pharmacy, these could procured from outside under National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority guidelines.
Initially in the morning, there was some problem as the devices were not available and even officials from the state government were deployed in the institute to monitor the situation.
