SHRI : Scripting success story : Lesson for the Govt
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 13, 2013 -

Shija Hospitals and Research Institute, Langol :: Pix - Santosh Shekhar

Not exactly medical tourism. But at least Shija Hospitals and Research Institute has managed to put Manipur on the map of medical destination, in so far as some States of the North East are concerned and Myanmar as well.

One bright news amid the hate campaigns, the divisive politics, the farce of the system that passes off as education here in the Government institutions, the daily load shedding and the utter lack of governance.

Chief Minister O Ibobi and his men may as well take a crash course at SHRI to really understand what is management and what is hardselling one's potentials to others.

Yet another reminder that despite the all round gloom and decay that are associated with anything close to the Government, private endeavours have not been missing.

All roads may not yet lead to the private medical institute located at the foothills of Langol, but the progress that SHRI has made in the last few years is a lesson which all Government Departments can learn, provided they are willing to learn.

It is not just a question of the brilliance of the doctors and the supporting staff that has made the institute click, but it is also about how a venture should be managed and sustained and make it progressive.

There are other examples too of private institutions setting the benchmark. Babina Diagnostic Centre is another name that comes to mind.

Efficiency, competency and understanding the need of the clients or the customers or the patients, is the mantra for success and progress.

This bare fact obviously has not registered in the minds of the Babudom, who manage and run the affairs of the State. This however is not to say that there are no rooms for improvement in the institutes named above.

Importantly, SHRI needs to do something to neutralise the growing opinion amongst some section of the people that it is mostly about money and money.

True, all institutes need to earn revenue and profits to make it sustainable as well as to take the next progressive step and upgrade infrastructure.

But when an opinion gains ground that profit is the sole driving force behind an institution which is there to care for the sick and the dying, then it would not be healthy for anyone, particularly the institution concerned.

A hospital certainly cannot adopt the line of a multi-chain retail store or a shop which deals with merchandise such as clothings for men and women.

At the moment, SHRI charges parking fees for all vehicles which enter its campus. A rethink here is needed.

All, well almost all the vehicles, that make their way to SHRI belong to patient parties and it is only right that the institution provides the space for the vehicles. Exceptions may be made for taxis.

Schemes may also be introduced for the economically backward section of the people. All these are suggestions and while the management of SHRI will certainly have their reasons for the measures being taken up, it would not harm to take one, long, hard look at the opinion expressed here, for they reflect the opinion of a section of the public.

Shija Hospitals and Research Institute has certainly come a long way from its early days and if at all there is a lesson that can be learnt from the story of this institute, it is that perseverance coupled with a vision for the future will yield dividends, one day or the other.

A lesson which we would like to prescribe to the Government.