Decaying Manipur health care delivery system – 4
Dr Th Suresh Singh *
JNIMS teachers demand removal of Director, launch ceasework strike on 21 April 2015 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam
Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare i.e. an IAS officer becoming i/c Director of the State's only Medical College JNIMS? 1st one in medical history.
Strange things do happen in our state of Manipur. Medical Council of India must immediately step up to de-recognise JNIMS to save carriers of students.
When JNIMS doctors started indefinite strike with various demands wef 21/04/ 2015, your pen-driver was away at Delhi for an important health check up. At Delhi, scanning various papers, it was found out that the teachers' Association had called off the strike in public interest wef 26/04/2015 after certain assurances by the Hon'ble Health Minister and the Hon'ble Chief Minister. Spokesperson Dr. Deven, however, added that the strike will be intensified if the assurances are not fulfilled within a specified time limit.
The after effect was :
i) giving leave to Director i/c Prof. Dr. Shyamo, and
ii) Principal Secretary Dr. Suresh Babu will look after the work of JNIMS Director.
It is here that your writer feels strange and shock. Dr. Suresh Babu may be a Medical doctor and a brilliant student; but he had never worked in a medical college and had no teaching experience. I have no personal grudge against him.
But then, how can he become i/c director of a medical college?
Did not he know the rules and regulations of Medical Council of India (MCI)?
How is it that the Governing Council Chaired by our CM approves such things?
As it violates important norms of MCI, it is a matter of time that MCI is bound to de-recognise our only medical college. It must be the 1st one in the history of any medical college in India. It is IAS-nisation of our medical institutions. Already MACS is under them. We will soon have an IAS officer as Director of Health if the trend continues. I hope we will not see IAS people treating patients.
Strange things do happen in our state of Manipur. Hence, Medical Council of India must immediately step up and warn the authority to de-recognise JNIMS to save carriers of students before it is too late.
How is it that we are having so many i/c directors in these a few years? Is it that it is convenient to serve the political masters? I, for one, surely know that there are prominent Professors with clean images among the faculty who served at RIMS. There are also professors who worked as Deans and i/c Directors at RIMS and now working at JNIMS.
What is the difficulty of our CM and Governing body to select one from among them permanently? Even if those are found unfit, presumably, why don't the authority select one from outside. There is no derth of retired professors for the post of director.
What is lacking is the will, far-sightedness and determination and nothing else. It is also strange that many doctors' organisations and students' bodies remain static with no verbal or otherwise protests.
In addition to the doctors' strike, the nursing staff also went a lightning strike though it is called off on 28/04/2015 with threatening calls to strike again in case of non-fulfilment. GNIMS is loaded full filth problems from the very beginning, all man–made with management failure and lack of certain defined objectives - long and short term ones.
With rampant adhoc-ism continuing in appointment of various grades of employees, no wonder, there will be sub-standard buying of equipments, drugs etc. and etc. With authority not knowing abcd of planning and implementation of a medical college, the college is going to collapse sooner or later. Not so long ago, in August last year, I have highlighted these things in this column (both English and Manipuri edition) with suggested treatment lines also incorporating.
As an ex-DHS, who contributed so much to its establishment, I only feel saddened and disappointment. I again demand that JNIMS be brought under Health Directorate as done in other states for proper supervision and; also, an advisory body be formed consisting multi-disciplinary experts. It is also time by the Hon'ble CM to look into the various suggestions given in my previous column.
* Dr Th Suresh Singh, MD, wrote this article to The Sangai Express
The writer is Ex- Director of Health Services, Manipur
This article was posted on May 08, 2015.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.