SHILLONG, Feb 7: The Meghalaya government is looking at the prospects of roping in private players to run the cancer wing at Shillong Civil Hospital, if it faces crisis of manpower.
Health Minister AL Hek, on Sunday, informed that the state government may have to adopt public-private partnership to run the management of the cancer wing if it falls short on manpower or technical people.
Stating that the cancer wing of the Shillong Civil Hospital is one of the priorities of the health department, Hek said, “If we can run the cancer wing with the existing manpower and succeed in giving complete services to the people, there will be no problem. But if the department is not ready, the government will have no choice but to go for outsourcing,” he added.
Informing that the department does not have sufficient manpower at present with only one physician appointed on contractual basis, the health minister said that after the contract ends one cannot say whether the contractual employees will continue their services or not.
He also said that age of the doctors and medical experts appointed on contractual basis also plays a crucial role.
“Tomorrow if we only appoint contractual workers, a time will come when they will be overage which will make it hard for us to accommodate them when the state’s recruitment policy does not permit that,” he reasoned.
Pointing out that cancer is one of the most expensive treatments at the time and that he has seen many families suffering while trying to avail it, Hek said, “In my constituency, I have seen people being compelled to sell their house and property just to avail the treatment for their family member who are suffering.”
“I don’t want this to be a burden on the people. The Health department will ensure to provide as much relief as we can through the Mega Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS),” he added.
The Health Minister also lamented that a number of people go outside the state to seek treatment for cancer due to unavailability of the facility here. “By making all types of treatment for cancer available in our state, we will ensure that people need not go to places like Guwahati, CMC Vellore, Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai or anywhere else for cancer treatment,” he asserted.
He said that the department is concerned and working on ways to provide the public best health services, particularly in the area of cancer treatments. “Let’s first complete it (cancer wing) and then we will ensure that the treatment cost will be minimal for patients and their family. As feasible, we will try to cover it from MHIS or even other ways through which we can support cancer patients,” he added.