Shillong, June 25: Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister, A.L. Hek on Monday sought the intervention of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda into the ongoing protest by resident doctors of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS).
The resident doctors of NEIGRIHMS Cardiology department were on strike for the last one week in protest against the alleged arbitrary use of administrative powers by the Director, D M Thappa to accept their examination fees for the doctorate of medicine cardiology course and for onward submission to the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU)
“I am pained to inform you that Resident doctors of NEIGRIHMS have been on strike for the last one week and this has affected the smooth functioning of the hospital and the patients,†Hek said in his letter sent to Nadda.
“The grievance of the doctors, as I could understand, is the alleged harassment in the university examination of students and victimization of doctors by the Director, NEIGRIHMS,†he added
The Meghalaya Health Minister pointed out that the NEIGRIHMS director has been away from the institute for the last 10 days “despite being aware of the situationâ€.
Hek said that patients who were coming from far flung areas of hilly terrains of North-Eastern Region are stranded in Meghalaya and are approaching me for help
“There have been reports in the media that that the Resident Doctors strike may intensify if their grievances are not addressed by the administration of NEIGRIHMS,†Hek informed urging Nadda to personally intervene into the matter and solve this issue at the earliest in the larger interest of the institute and patients.
The North East Health Ministers had recently raised the issue of de-recognition of the Post Graduate course at NEIGRIHMS with Nadda and requested him for his personal intervention.
The NEIGRIHMS has been designed on the lines of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.
The hospital was built at an estimated cost of Rs 420 crore and has a 30-bed Intensive Care Unit and 35 specialty and super specialty departments.
