AIIMS type medical institute to be operational soon in Meghalaya

Shillong, Jul 14 (UNI) The super speciality North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Services (NEIGRIHMS) in Meghalaya will be made operational soon, its Director Dr R K Sharma said here today.

Dr Sharma said the PMO recently had inquired on the latest development of this Rs 422.60 crore-project to inaugurate the medical institute.

''The PMO has sent some queries regarding the weather conditions and security arrangements in the area'', the NEIGRIHMS Director said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to inaugurate the medical institute on July 20. However, the PMO has postponed his visit to this city, official sources said.

NEIGRIHMS, declared by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee national institute on January 22, 2000 would be equipped with specialist doctors and latest health infrastructure, he said adding the institute will also have a separate Regional Cancer Centre to cater to cancers patients in the region.

Conceived with the idea of a 500 bed medical institute, Dr Sharma told newsmen at NEIGRIHMS campus at Mawdiangdiang, about 12 km from here, that so far the institute has completed 300 beds with 14 operation theaters and different intensive care units.

He also said the institute is equipped to handle 150 patients in the Out Patient Department.

He added that the institute will also have separate AYUSH department.

He further informed that the medical institute has already started the BSc. nursing college. 50 students have enrolled themselves, he said adding that nursing will be upgraded to MSc. and PhD. course.

The director said the medical institute would focus more on cardiac, paediatrics and gastro-enteritis diseases and cancer besides other common health ailments in the region.

Expressing concern at the bad media publicity about Meghalaya, he said a former AIIMS official had said Meghalaya and the region as a whole is handicapped by mis-information.

''People outside the region think this place is militancy-infested and fear to come to work,'' Dr Sharma said while pointing out that medical experts from other parts of the country feared to serve in the region.

However, the NEIGRIHMS Director felt that specialist doctors and medical experts from the region should come forward and serve in this prestigious institute, which is equivalent to AIIMS, New Delhi and PIGMER, Chandigarh.

On the slow pace of work, Dr Sharma said the completion of work is delayed due transport bottlenecks.

''It takes more than a month to get our equipment from New Delhi because of transport problem and sometimes we are told that our machines are lying in Silugiri due to an Assam bandh or other problems,'' he said.

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