NAHARLAGUN: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu dedicated to the people Block II of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) housing the newly functional Emergency and Trauma department and newly installed three Tesla MRI scanners at the state’s lone medical college-cum-hospital here on Monday.
He along with health minister Alo Libang also flagged off 100 medical utility vehicles from the hospital complex.
Addressing officials of state health services department and TRIHMS, Khandu said, “health is a priority, was a priority and will always be a priority of the state government.”
Congratulating the medical fraternity, he said it was because of their sincere efforts guided by State Health Minister Alo Libang these state-of-the-art facilities could be established within a very short period of time.
“The state government is committed to the growth of TRIHMS and funds will not be in dearth for its development,” he assured.
Khandu also assured that the dearth of manpower especially, in the newly established Emergency and Trauma centre, will be looked into on priority and requested the concerned officials to submit a report on it to the government for necessary action.
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The Chief Minister, however, expressed concern over complaints of lack of sufficient number of doctors in the district hospitals.
He said on papers there were enough doctors to man all the district hospitals and urged for a proper survey and rationalization of doctors’ postings.
“In case there is actual dearth of doctors, the state government is ready to recruit more. But first a proper rationalization of doctors posting has to be done,” he said.
Khandu pointed that with a huge geographical area and sparsely populated habitations, it is a big challenge for the government to take basic facilities like health services to the people.
This, he insisted, requires sincere efforts of the health department and its officials.
Khandu expressed satisfaction on the growth of the state’s only medical college and assured full support for its further growth.
“I am happy to note that the first batch of MBBS students of this college have given their final examinations and are awaiting results. I believe that every student will come out with flying colors,” he said.
He informed that the state government is pursuing with the central authorities to increase the intake capacity of the college from the present 50 students to 100 per batch.
“Hopefully, this year the intake capacity of the college is enhanced,” he said.
The Chief Minister also witnessed the first drone flight at TRIHMS connecting the hospital under the Medicine From Sky programme with East Kameng.
The newly inaugurated Block II of TRIHMS will consist of registration counter for outpatient departments with CMAAY counter attached, new OPDs in 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, Emergency and Trauma center, equipped with Cat Scan and MRI units, in ground floor besides a modular operation theatre.
The 100 health utility vehicles flagged off today include twenty-two patient transport vehicle fitted with all equipment, drugs and consumables of BLS to be manned by trained emergency medical technicians and first responder drivers.
In addition to this, newly launched service, 90 Basic Life support Dial 108 ambulances are operating in the state catering to emergency response transfer from home to facility. These 108 ambulances are also pressed into inter facility transfer of critical and serious patients to higher medical center for secondary and tertiary care services within and outside the state.
As per official records this service has received more than 70,000 calls, served more than 7000 critical patients, transferred 4500 to higher centers and covered a total of 14,08,690 kms since its launch in June 2021.