The BJP recently called for a Power Policy in Meghalaya. The Party should also demand a Health Policy since the Health Department, held by its own MLA has been in the news recently for the wrong reasons such as procuring medicines with short expiry dates, so much so they had to be thrown away and new sets of medicines indented. The money for this goes from the public exchequer and the Government cannot be unmindful of this. The Performance Audit of select district hospitals in Meghalaya for the period ended March 2019 shows a dismal picture of the healthcare system in Meghalaya. Hospitals across Meghalaya have no effluents treatment plants. There is only one intensive care unit (ICU) in the Shillong Civil Hospital; other hospitals have none and the Directorate of Heath Services never even considered planning for such ICUs in other district hospitals. Hence patients in the other districts had to be referred to or passed on to private hospitals.
There are no district hospitals in the three districts of East Jaintia Hills, South West Khasi Hills and North Garo Hills. This severely limits people’s access to healthcare. What is even more shocking is that there is no trauma/accident and burn care centre in any of the district hospitals. Hence patients with serious injuries are referred to NEIGRIHMS or outside the state, thereby losing the golden hour within which a patient’s life can be saved.
The State Government has no Equipment Procurement Policy (EPP) or any standardised norms for procurement of equipment for different health facilities and has neither adopted Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) norms, None of the District Hospitals are fully equipped with the essential equipment due to inadequate maintenance thereby impacting the efficiency and health care provided in the hospitals. Besides, there are no Annual Maintenance Contracts signed with the suppliers which would have ensured reduction of breakdown time of essential equipment for diagnosis.
Meghalaya is infamous for incomplete projects leading to time and cost overruns. The CAG report mentions that the construction of a State Spinal Injury centre, the amount for which was sanctioned in 2018 and the Trauma Centre for Shillong Civil Hospital due for completion by September 2018 did not even commence despite funds of Rs 9.08 crore being made available by the Centre.
It may be mentioned that the same person has been holding the post of Health Minister in the Congress-led MUA Government and continues to hold charge of the same Department in the MDA. His interest in the Health portfolio raises many questions. The backlog in the health sector has only accumulated with time and the pandemic has revealed the cracks in the functioning of this vital Department. Till date no account has been given on how the Rs 399 crore of Covid funds have been deployed.