NEW DELHI, July 28: Shillong MP Vincent H Pala on Friday expressed serious concern over large-scale desertion of well-trained and highly skilled faculty members, doctors, and staff due to lack of career growth opportunities in NEIGRIHMS.
The outflow is depriving the poor people in the Northeast of specialised healthcare, he said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to upgrade the top institute to the level of AIIMS.
The parliamentarian said that many of the highly qualified and trained medical staff are joining newly-established AIIMS and this is affecting the continuity of specialised and super specialised medical services in the landlocked region.
Such an unhealthy trend deprives the economically weaker sections of society access to quality, reasonable, and affordable treatment within the region. This is forcing them to seek expensive healthcare in other states, which burdens them socially and economically, the veteran Congress leader pointed out.
NEIGRIHMS was established in 1987 as an autonomous post-graduate medical institute envisioned at par with AIIMS, New Delhi, and PGIMER, Chandigarh. It was declared as a Centre of Excellence in 2007 and the Parliament Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare acknowledged it as an institute to provide advanced specialised healthcare services, Pala said.
Currently, NEIGRIHMS offers various medical education courses, including MBBS, postgraduate programmes, post-doctoral programmes, BSc nursing, and MSc nursing. It also houses a Regional Cancer Centre with 252 beds for comprehensive healthcare management, training, referral, and research related to cancer.
The institute receives many patients also from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. NEIGRIHMS plays a vital role in comprehensive healthcare management, patient care services, academics, research and medical education, nursing education, and cancer treatment for the people of the entire Northeast, Pala said.
“It is disheartening to note that there has been a lack of cadre review, revision of recruitment rules, promotional avenues, and pay parity for the majority of employees, including faculty, doctors, staff, and nurses, despite continuous representations to the ministry. This neglect and step-motherly treatment towards the region have caused significant discontent among the NEIGRIHMS staff,” the MP wrote.
The upgrading of NEIGRIHMS to the status of AIIMS, Shillong will facilitate the expansion of the undergraduate MBBS course and postgraduate programmes in medical specialties and super specialties. This step will also ensure the production of a sufficient number of medical professionals, addressing the current gap in the doctor-patient ratio in the Northeast, Pala said.
