Protest against rural posting
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 12, 2013 -
More than the medical feat that Prof (Dr) Shyam Kumar Singh Thingnam of Kakching Khunou who is presently working as the Head of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Department in Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, has accomplished in the history of the premier medical and research institution by performing its first ever heart transplant operation successfully last Sunday, the news snippet on the successful conduct of the 2nd surgical outreach camp at Tamenglong district hospital by a medical team led by Dr N Jitandra, Head of Department, Surgery Unit I of JNIMS, Imphal from August 8 to 9 seems to have attracted the attention of the people in Manipur.
By saying this, we are not in any way trying to discredit the achievement of Prof (Dr) Shyam Kumar Singh Thingnam, who had also played a vital role in the first successful liver transplant two years ago in PGIMER, which is one of the 10 medical institutes in the country to be identified by the Directorate General of Health Services under the National Organ Transplant Programme.
It is for the simple fact that medical feats like heart or liver transplant is something beyond the reach and understanding of most people in Manipur where access to even the basic medical treatment facilities is not just a distant dream still, but also a harrowing nightmare, more particularly in the rural and other far flung hill areas.
So, when Dr Jitendra and his team landed at Tamenglong District Hospital for conducting their 2nd surgical outreach camp from August 8 to 9, it was like a god-send blessing for the people in the backward Tamenglong district of Manipur.
The achievement of the team – successful conduct of 14 major operations and 8 minor operations - may not be exactly the kind of medical feats that could attract the headlines of newspapers and news channels, but the fact that a medical team from Imphal went all the way to Tamenglong to extend medical balm and succor means a lot to the deprived people there, who, otherwise, have to traverse 150 km in coming to Imphal for getting medical treatment as there are no specialist doctors or medical facilities worth their names in any of the existing health centres.
That shows the commitment of the medical team towards their professional calling.
Notably, the visit of the medical team from Imphal to Tamenglong district for conducting the 2nd surgical outreach camp has come at a time when junior doctors in other parts of the country are launching their 'Save the Doctor' agitation protesting against the decision of Union Health Ministry to make one year rural posting mandatory for medical students before they can take admission to post-graduate courses.
Perhaps, these agitating junior doctors could learn a lesson or two from the team members of the surgical outreach camp on the true meaning of their profession, which is to save the lives of people in need of medical attention anywhere be it rural or urban.
The demand to save the doctors from being posting in rural areas is too mean and discriminatory, to say the least.
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