Shillong, June 4: A sub-committee of the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has taken strong cognizance on the various problems including the shortage of manpower in the Ganesh Das Government Maternal & Child Health Hospital.
This was after a delegation of the PAC sub-committee headed by Congress MLA from Mawsynram Himalaya M Shangpliang has conducted an inspection to the hospital here on Tuesday.
It was necessitated following recent reports alleging the hospital authority of refusing to admit a pregnant woman due to lack of equipments.
Speaking to reporters after the inspection, Shangpliang said, “We have decided to submit a report along with recommendations to the state government for taking up necessary actions to address these problems and ensure that the delivery system is improved in the hospital.”
The chairman informed that the 400-bed hospital is having only 20 doctors despite the sanction strength of 25 adding there are also only 120 nurses against the santion strength of 180.
“Therefore, the hospital is having a shortage of 5 doctors and 60 nurses and we expect the government will address at the earliest,” he said.
Shangpliang further expressed concern over the delay in handing over the additional building, which was supposed to be completed in 2017 and said, “The engineer concerned has assured the sub-committee that the building will be handed over within six months which from our side will be conducting a follow up on this.”
The PAC has also taken note on the fact that the hospital is without an intensive care unit (ICU) for children.
“In fact an ICU for children is very important especially in handling cases related to pre-mature births. Therefore, we have directed the hospital management to immediately submit a proposal to the government,” Shangpliang said.
On the allegation against the hospital, the chairman said that the authority has clarified that the hospital could not conduct the operation on the concerned patient who came at 12 pm due to non-availability of equipment. This was because the hospital had conducted operations on eight patients. Accordingly, she was referred to NEIGRIHMS.