SHILLONG, Jan 12: The North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) Director, Prof Nalin Mehta, aims to “go by the book and play by the rules” so as to steer the institute away from any form of controversies.
“My main aim would be to go by the book and play by the rules and do whatever is in the best interest of the patient. We are serving through regular means,” Mehta said.
The institute has been smeared in controversies of alleged implant scam in the hospital in the past.
Former NEIGRIHMS Director, Prof DM Thappa, had also made a seizure of Rs 32 lakh in the hospital in regard with surgical implants from a private pharmacy run by the wife of a technician in Radio Diagnosis Department.
What followed thereafter was internal differences between the then Director and the Cardiology Department to the extent that a PIL on NEIGRIHMS was moved by senior advocate SP Mahanta in the High Court as there were concerns over shortage of cardiac devices due to the internal differences among the functionaries of the hospital.
The matter was however disposed of by Meghalaya High Court after it found that the functioning of the hospital was streamlined. “There have been controversies earlier I am not very aware or competent to comment on them but till date nothing concrete has come out of any of that,” Mehta said.
“What we are doing is in terms of procuring materials that has to be provided to the patients – devices we are streamlining the procurement process,” added the NEIGRIHMS Director.
He said that the process will happen through the institution and will go through the portal. “We have ways and means of procuring material devices and other equipment for the institutions,” he added.
It may be recalled that the former Director, Prof Thappa, had alleged that the Head of Department of Cardiology, Dr Animesh Mishra, had asked the particular private pharmacy to visit the Cath lab in the department on a daily basis to supply stents, pacemakers and implants at higher prices to run a private syndicate to derive benefits and create assets out of proportion of his income.
The statement said that the pharmacy, which is supposed to supply these items at subsidized rates to hospital patients, was bypassed.
The ex-director had claimed that despite bringing this to the notice of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from 2017 to 2020, the director was asked to have a cordial relationship with Dr Animesh Mishra.