Next PIL hearing on 30th August at Guwahati High Court
Morung Express News
August 26
DIMAPUR: An acutely needed comprehensive health care and services led to the demand for a Referral Hospital in 1965. The first memorandum to Government of Nagaland was submitted by the then Naga Medical Students Association. Forty years later, the referral hospital is yet to emerge into a concrete infrastructure of service.
The first response to this demand of the people was made in the year 1985 when Government of Nagaland initiated a 500 bedded-Referral Hospital project in Dimapur at a proposed cost of 34.30 crores. The project was scheduled to be commissioned in 1993. By 1996, the project had already spent 51 crores without any sign of completion. This led to public pressure on the Govt to be transparent on the project; and in 2002, it decided to seek the intervention of private expertise to secure completion of the project and effective running of the Hospital. Three leading medical Institutes in India responded to this offer - 1. Apollo Hospital, 2. Manipal Hospital Group and 3. CMC Vellore in which EHA also appeared as a possible collaborator with CMC. EHA is a Christian organization that runs community health care centers in different parts of the country.
CMC’s proposal (46.30 crore) was least expensive and it brought in the Christian element of service. During 2004, the Nagaland Government started to negotiate directly and singularly with Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) which was strongly opposed by the Nagaland Doctors Association (NDA). NDA accused the Govt of being hasty and undemocratic on the grounds that the issues of negotiating and signing of MOU with the EHA was neither discussed nor consulted with the medical fraternity, technical committee members of the referral hospital and legal and managerial expertise. They had expressed serious concerns over EHA’s lack of experience and expertise in running a referral hospital and medical college. The non-inclusion of CMC Vellore, who first proposed to run the hospital (in collaboration with EHA) in the proceedings, caused further dismay. Later CMC announced that they are in no condition to run a hospital outside Vellore at this juncture.
While NDA and other organizations’ expressed apprehensions and protests against EHA’s competency in running the hospital, Government of Nagaland went ahead and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with EHA on 25th January, 2005. The agreement of the MOU states that a third entity “Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research Institute” be created to run the referral hospital for 30 years at no cost or rent and that this society will have members from the government, DONER, the funding agency and EHA with whom the controlling powers of the society will rest. The society would further have a free hand, and no recruitment tariff and other regulations on management will apply. Rs. 3561.56 will be transferred by DONER to the society and the balance amount 451.36 lakhs and a bank guarantee of Rs. 9.81 lakhs will be issued by the Government of Nagaland to the society. On 14th June, 2005 some money amounting 17 crores, 24 lakhs and 85 thousand rupees (Rs. 17,24,85000.00) was released by the Government for the Hospital.
In response to the series of agitations and protests by the medical fraternity against the MOU, Government of Nagaland instituted a committee to review the MOU and on the 27th May, 2005 an additional MOU was signed with CMC Vellore. The agreement in this MOU states that CMC will provide technical and managerial assistance and guidance to the Referral Hospital. The MOU with EHA on 25th January, 2005 will be executed along with this additional MOU with CMC Vellore. NDA has concluded that this additional MOU was only an eye-wash by the Government to lure the people away from the core issues of the problem.
Dissatisfied with Government interventions or lack of intervention, the Nagaland Doctors Association (NDA) took the matter to the court of law, and filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Government of Nagaland at Guwahati high court in June, 2005. The first hearing of the case was on 22nd July where a stay order was passed. The second hearing was held on the 28th of July where Government. of Nagaland’s prayer for vacation of stay order was turned down which was followed by a third hearing on 11th August. Since Government of Nagaland has prayed for more time due to want for necessary papers, the Hon. Chief Justice of Guwahati has provided time until the 19th of August. The next hearing is scheduled for 30th August, 2005.
The State of Nagaland has 387 in-service doctors and 80 unemployed doctors and another 250 unemployed nursing staff. It has additional 111. Nagaland however, is the only state in the North East which does not have a medical institute of its own. Assam has three medical colleges, Manipur has RIIMS, Arunachal Pradesh has NERIST, Homeopathy College and referral hospital which was established last year, Sikkim has Manipal Medical college, Mizoram has RIPAM, Tripura is under process for a medical college and Meghalaya which only have 57 specialist doctors has a NE Indira Gandhi Postgraduate Institute.
Whatever the court decides next, the fate of Nagaland Referral Hospital, Naga doctors and the people who rely on their services will largely depend on the decisions the Government takes in the aftermath of the PIL.
