The Meghalaya government directed the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) to call a meeting of the general council to discuss and address various problems and shortcomings in the institute.
A letter asking NEIGRIHMS director to convene the general council was sent by Meghalaya health and family welfare secretary Pravin Bakshi on Friday.
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Bakshi said that it was the opinion of health minister A.L Hek that the governing council of NEIGRIHMS may be convened at the earliest so that all contentious matters could be discussed therein and decision arrived at.
The government advised that necessary steps should be taken with the Union ministry of health and family welfare to hold the above meeting immediately and an urgent report on the current matter may be shared with the state health department since “patients’ lives are at stake and health is a state subject too.”
NEIGRIHMS has been in the news following a standoff between doctors and the administration leading to the shutting down of the cardiology department.
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The Meghalaya health minister said that the state government wanted the problem be sorted out at the earliest so that patients especially those coming to the hospital for treatment from far-off places should not suffer.
Surgery of patients could not be conducted at the hospital due to non-availability of required equipments such stents and pacemakers.
However, NEIGRIHMS public relations officer, in a statement clarified that the services in the cardiology department have been shut down because the head of cardiology department has not been co-operating with the administration with regards to making treatment of poor patients affordable as per the Union ministry of health and family welfare regulations.
“There are two complaints from PMO Office to the ministry of health and family welfare which was forwarded to NEIGRIHMS regarding high price where cardiology patients have to pay to get treatment due to high cost price of stents, which the patients purchase from some local vendors,” the statement claimed.