SHILLONG, Sep 2: It has been over a year since a 28-year-old woman died at Dangar PHC after childbirth, reportedly due to negligence on the part of doctors and nurses, putting a big question mark on their credibility. A year later, the Assembly Committee on Women Empowerment (ACWE), in a startling revelation, has divulged that the doctor, who was posted at the NGO-run PHC and handling the case, was yet to get necessary approval from the National Medical Commission (NCM).
Informing this, ACWE chairperson, Ampareen Lyngdoh, on Thursday also said the doctor had secured his MBBS degree from China.
“From what we understand is that any doctor who gets the MBBS degree from other countries would need the approval of the NCM. But the documents submitted to us about the qualifications of this particular doctor did not contain certificate or documents from the NCM,” Lyngdoh said.
She expressed surprise that the information which was shared to the Committee revealed that the doctor, who was appointed by Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM), an NGO running the Dangar PHC, was not even a qualified doctor as he did not have a mandatory licence from the NCM.
“The documents submitted to the committee suggest that the doctor is not qualified to handle such a complex gynaecological case,” the ACWE chairperson said.
Informing that the Committee has decided to sought for more documents to find out if the information shared with the Committee are true or not, Lyngdoh said that the ACWE has summoned the health officials as well the representatives from the VHAM on September 21 to depose before the Committee about what had happened on June 3 last year that led to the death of the woman.
It may be mentioned that following the death of Munni Marak after childbirth, the doctors had claimed that she died of complications due to premature delivery.
Mawsynram MLA, Himalaya M Shangpliang, had last year said that the family members had woken up the doctor and the nurse at around 5 am on June 3 when the woman complained of labour pain. “She delivered the baby in the ward before the staff could shift her to the labour room and died shortly afterwards,” Shangpliang had said.
He had also argued that in light of such incidents, the government should run the PHCs on its own instead of handing them over to NGOs.
‘Sexual assault’ of minors
Meanwhile, with regard to the recent alleged sexual assault of four minors at Ummir near the Shillong Bypass, Lyngdoh said that the Committee has been summoning the police officials to know about the status of the case.
“We have no information about this case. Whatever information we had gathered was through the media report. We need to know about the police investigation since it is a very sensitive case,” Lyngdoh said.
It may be mentioned that police had earlier arrested six persons from Mawpdang village in connection with the case.
Double murder in WKH
Lyngdoh also informed that the Committee will soon summon police officials from West Khasi Hills with regard to the case of the killing of Phlesis Syiem (79) and her domestic help, Maitlynti Lyngdoh Marshillong (25).
