SHILLONG: School Education and Literacy Minister Deborah Marak has pulled up the rural doctors who failed to attend the 27th North East Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies Annual Conference that began in the city on Friday.
Speaking as the chief guest at the event, Marak directed the secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department, KW Marbaniang, to ask the absentees the reason for skipping the programme that would have helped them improve their skills at a time when high maternal mortality rate is a problem in rural areas.
The Minister urged doctors to be committed to their service, she said doctors in private hospitals, including Apollo Hospital in Chennai, are compassionate towards their patients, which is lacking in doctors at public healthcare institutes. “A doctor with compassionate behaviour will win the hearts of patients,” she said.
Meanwhile, Marak also urged the doctors to explore the possibility of using telemedicine, especially in rural areas, which can save many lives in case of emergency and accidents.
Marbaniang rued that the shortage of doctors is a major challenge in the State and said out of 684 Government medical officers, only 147 of them are specialists. He also revealed that as per the study of the International Finance Corporation, only 0.2 percent doctors are available in Meghalaya per 1000 patients
Stressing on the importance of Ayush doctors, Marbaniang said as per a recent study in Meghalaya, 65 percent of the rural population still prefers to go to government hospitals and the reason is non-investment by private partners to set up hospitals in villages.
The three-day annual conference that began on Friday is being held on the theme ‘Above and Beyond’ and it is being attended by medical professionals from across the country.
