Some private clinics compromise quality of service: Director
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 16 2016 : Although private clinics have mush-roomed in the State, quality of service has been compromised, said State Medical Director, Dr O Ibom-cha while interacting with media persons at a press con-ference organized by Direc- torate of Information & Public Relations at its office complex, Moirangkhom today.

Dr Ibomcha said that there are about 320 private nursing homes in the State.

Some of them are run without registration.

As none of the private clinics could provide services in all disciplines, Dr Ibomcha suggested amalgamation of these clinics for effective services.

Manipur is doing exceptionally well in the health sector, asserted Medical Director, Dr Okram Ibomcha.

The director cited a number of indicators to substantiate his assertion.

Over the last many years Manipur has been securing the top position when it comes to reducing Infant Mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of children less than one year of age per 1000 live births.

Manipur has been successful in bringing down the IMR from 20 in 2001 to around 11 in 2011 onwards which incidentally is also the IMR of 2014.This according to the Director is a big achievement considering the fact that the National IMR stands at 40 .

The mortality rate of children under 5 years of age (U5MR) for Manipur for 2015 stands at 12.5 which again is much lower than the national U5MR figure of 48.When it comes to the maternal death per 100,000 live births or the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), for India for the year 2014 is 181 deaths per 100,000 live births while for Manipur the figure is comparably very low at 60 to 70, the director also informed.

The Director also listed the improvement in medical infrastructure and manpower in terms of doctors, nurses and other auxiliary staff responsible for these positive indicators in health sector.

There are 1389 beds under the State Health Department including JNIMS while RIMS has 881 beds.

Besides, there are 332 beds in private hospitals making a total of 2602 beds available in health care facilities in the State.

The number of medical doctors increased from 615 in 2003 to 1068 in 2016, while the number of dental surgeons increased from 17 to 89 during the same period.

There are at present 566 staff nurses in the State which was just 235 in 2003.The number of patients per doctor in the State stood at 1066 at present.

As for nurses, the national average stands at 2500 patients for every nurse while the figure for the State is 250 patients for every nurse.

This abundance of manpower contributes immensely in the improvement in the health sector.

In 2014-15, State Government health institutions carried out 11517 deliveries and conducted 592 CS, JNIMS carried out 3696 deliveries and conducted 1540 CS and finally, for the same period, RIMS carried out 11192 deliveries and conducted 3583 CS, informed the Director.

There are four fully functional blood banks in the State— one each at RIMS, JNIMS, Thoubal District Hospital and Churachandpur District Hospital besides another one at Shija Hospital.

Over and above this, there are six blood storage facilities.

Dr Ibomcha also informed that there are 89 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the State out of which 72 are recognized as delivery points.

To be counted as delivery point, a PHC should carry out 6 deliveries per month, CHC should carry out 10 deliveries per month and if the CHC has operation facilities it should carry out 20 deliveries per month.

For a district hospital, the figure is 30 deliveries per month while for a medical college it is 50 deliveries per month.

The vastly improved infrastructure and increased manpower has made the PHCs, CHCs and district hospitals very efficient which has decreased the burden of RIMS.

Citing an example, Dr Ibomcha stated that RIMS is now carrying out only about 800 deliveries per month whereas the figure used to hover around 1000 deliveries some years back.

The Director also cited many benefits extended to patients like the facility of availing ambulance service by dialling 102 for emergency purposes.

Other benefits offered by the Health Department include reimbursement of up to Rs 150 lakh in a year to BPL.

For upto Rs 50,000 the DC and the CMO can settle the matter at their level while for amount above this, it has to go upto the State Government level.

On the issue of Government doctors practising in private clinics and private hospitals, the Director admitted that though the department has been trying to end this menace it has not been very successful.

He partly blamed the lack of teeth of the Manipur Nursing Homes and Clinic Registration Act for the prevalence of Government doctors practising privately.

The Director also informed that the bi-medical wastes generated by Government and private hospitals are being properly disposed in the State following strict monitoring by the State Pollution Control Board.

The Director, on the other hand, was defensive on the inability to stop the sell and use of tobacco products in the State despite a ban of these.

He appealed to the public to build up a movement against the use of tobacco product in the State.

Dr N Pratap Singh, Consultant (Planning) of Medical Directorate also attended the press meet.

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