DIMAPUR, MARCH 1 (DIPR): In what could be termed as a historical event, the Government of Nagaland has handed over the Referral Hospital Dimapur to Christian Institute of Health Science & Research today.
State Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who was the Chief Guest of the ceremony, stated that the day was indeed a landmark for the State of Nagaland to mark the handing over of the Referral Hospital project to the Immanuel Hospital Association and the CMC Vellore to be run as Christian Institute of Health Science & Research that would provide quality medication and health care facilities to the people of the State. Rio stated that the idea of setting up the Referral Hospital was first conceived and soon after work on this project was commenced. However, the State could not complete the project and it was then felt that it would be best to hand over the project to a well qualified and renowned agency which could revive and revitalise the project. Towards this end offers were invited from the Apollo Group, Manipal Group and CMC/EHA combined, he disclosed and said that finally after evaluating the bids of each of the three groups it was felt that the offer of CMC/EHA combined was more cost effective and suitable to our project.
He stated that the Government had signed two MOUs with CMC/EHA on January 2005 and May 2005 and the stage was set for handing over the Hospital to the new management. There was however a setback in the form of a PIL filed by the Nagaland Doctors Association as well as the problem of liabilities to the contractors, he said. The PIL however was dismissed by the Guwahati High Court in the shortest possible time Rio said and appealed to the contractors to be patient for clearance of their dues. Rio also stated that Nagaland being a backward state might lack in many infrastructural facilities and the most critical one was the inavailability of quality medical care facility for which crores of rupees was spent for sending patients for outside medical treatment.
He also stated that there were 150 doctors, 50 dentists and 300 nurses unemployed and that with the start of this Hospital many of them would find employment. He also expressed his gratitude to all the NGOs and civil societies for their support to the project and asked for their future cooperation.
In the same function, Dr. T M Lotha said that the objective of the project was to steadily increase its capacity in a phased manner after operationalizing the OPT. He added that the main objective was to have a medical and a nursing college to be subsequently added on in the later stage. He stated that he had great hope from the management and that their performance would come up to the people’s expectation. He also appealed to the people involved in this project to dedicate themselves to their task with commitment and zeal so that the long awaited dream could be transformed into reality.
