Morung Express News
Kiphire | July 10
Adding more woes to the acute shortage of man power and infrastructure, the management of the 50 bedded District Hospital, Kiphire (DHK) is crippled due to inadequate, improper and unjust posting of its Medical Officers.
After a gap of one year without a Medical Superintendent (MS) at DHK, the health department deputed a new MS to the district this year on promotion much to the relief to the establishment.
However, as it turned out, the new MS posted to DHK, through reportedly eager to begin work at his new posting place, could not visit the district due to serious health complications.
According to DHK staff, the MS is said to be suffering from diabetic neuropathy and is also a stroke patient. He therefore requires at least two persons to be behind him all the time for him to move around.
With this kind of situation, the establishment remains in fix. Even to draw their monthly salary, staff of DHK has to go to Kohima to get the specimen signature signed from the MS which also at times does not tally with the earlier specimen signature. With the worsening health condition, the MS literally has to struggle to even hold a pen and give his signature.
This kind of confounding situation is not that first that the DHK has experienced. In 2010, a Medical Officer (MO) posted in the district was a paraplegic patient after he met with an accident while performing duty before being posted to the DHK.
This MO needed someone to pull him around in wheel chair to perform his duty. However, the MO resigned from service due to distance and lack of facility and infrastructure in the hospital for physically challenged officers like him to perform duty.
Adding more problems to the existing problem, a Psychiatrist, who is also a Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the DHK was diagnosed with Stomach cancer after few month of his posting in DHK. He is under treatment since then and cannot join duty due to his health problem.
In 2015, a nurse who was undertaking Chemotherapy was posted as Nursing Sister (Head Nurse) but she could not join her duty as her health did not permit and ultimately after a year she was transferred from DHK.
Similarly, the SMO posted at FRU (First Referral Units) at Pungro, a sub division under Kiphire district, was a stroke patient and needed support to move around. The SMO could render his valuable service only a couple of times during his years of posting at the sub division before he retired from service.
Staffs of DHK establishment while sharing these multiple problems said it was unfair that the health department could send such medical officers having serious health complication without a thought to render service in far flung areas like Kiphire district which is confounded by road communication and infrastructure facilities.
The health department or those in the higher rung of the department seriously lacks humanity and conscience by deputing these poor medical officer (s) without any scruples, a DHK staff who did not wish to be named lamented.
