Dr Ahanthem Santa knows how to project RIMS in the corridors of power in Centre. And in 2016-2017 RIMS was able to cater to the needs of over 5 lakhs patients in its 27 different departments and four specialized units.
By Sanjoo Thangjam with Yambem Laba
When in 1972 the State Government of Manipur decided to establish a Medical College it was a bold step. It began as the Regional Medical College, unsure of its footings. But over time the North Eastern Council took over RMC and catered to students hailing from Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim with each state contributing its share towards running the Institute. And all went well and it got affiliated to Manipur University when the latter came up later some ten years later.
But the actual trouble began when funds started flowing into the RMC for developmental work and the rot was set to have set in when a person who later became a Legislator was at the helms of affairs. That was also the time when various underground groups started laying their eyes on it to fill their coffers. Soon a turf war broke out amongst various non-state actors the booms of grenade blasts began to be heard across the hospital corridors and Medical Superintendents of the hospital began to make their rounds armed with loaded fire-arms to fend off potential attacks on their persons and the state started providing with armed escorts and house guards. Patient care and advancement of medical technologies took a backseat and jobs began to be auctioned off with the price of a staff nurse being quoted anywhere between 25-30 lakhs and there were more than 200 such posts in the offing on and off during that period.
The RMC reached its Nadir during the tenure of Dr S Sekharjit Singh as Director. That was when he was sacked from his position and the CBI began raiding at his house and office. A Central Institute by then the post of the Director also began to be auctioned off in New Delhi’s Nirman Bhawan. One former Union Health Minister was reported in the national news daily The Statesman for having allegedly accepted a graft of Rs 4 Crore for appointment to the post of Director of RMC which had by then became the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). Then began a period of uncertainty as short terms Directors began to appoint to fill in the gap. It was around that time that the powers to be in the Health Ministry in the Centre began a serious rethinking as to who would be the right person to steer the RIMS from the abyss to which it had sunk.
The eye soon fell on Dr Ahanthem Santa Singh a local man who had never served in the State but a man who had helped set up three Medical Institutes. The first in Dharan in Nepal the second the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences in Gangtok and the third the NEIGRIMHS in Shillong. He was already officiating as the Director in Shillong when he was tasked with looking after Imphal. As a matter of fact, he was given the choice of looking after Shillong or Imphal but chose the latter as he wanted to give back something to his place of birth.
Thus the 55 years old Doctor assumed charge on 16 August 2017. And when he did the Institute was in doldrums as the 2000 plus staff on rolls have not been paid their salaries for two months, then making it the only centrally administered unit in the entire country to be doing so. He watched very carefully and two months hence after the staff had received their salaries he made the stunning announcement that henceforth all regular staff members would be receiving pay scales as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission of India. Staff members who were on a contractual basis had their remunerations considerably enhanced and people on daily wage basis began to enjoy scales as stipulated by the Central Minimum Wages Act. Likewise stipends for M.Phil. students was hiked from Rs.5000 to Rs.25000/-. On the other hand, he drastically cut down the price of MRI and CT Scans down to Rs.2500 and Rs.500 compared to the Rs.6500+ and 3000+ in private clinics he also announced that all Laboratory tests done in RIMS would be free of cost. Thus making medical health care available to all the needy persons across the State. And also he was able to more than double the annual budgetary allocation of the Govt. of India from about Rs.150 crores to more than Rs.300 crores. It is apparent that he also knows how to project RIMS in the corridors of power in Centre. And in 2016-2017 RIMS was able to cater to the needs of over 5 lakhs patients in its 27 different departments and four specialized units. Besides it also has a full-fledged Dental and a Nursing College under its ambit. RIMS also acquired the latest MRI Machine making it two and is adding two more CT Scan machines.
Dr Santa, the visionary who was recently feted as one the best Gynecologist teachers of India has big plans for RIMS and wants to place it on par with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and wants to conduct not only Kidney Transplant but also Heart Transplant operations in RIMS and wants to tap patients from neighboring Myanmar and Bangladesh.
But is not the lack of funds or vital equipment that is standing in the way of advancement of medical and healthcare for the people but more than often the lack of co-operation as there are many wannabe Directors who are leaving no stone unturned to achieve their one agenda and that is of removing him from office. And to that extent have gone to the extent of forging signatures, petitions to the Union Health Ministry, the Supreme Court of India, and even to the National Investigative Agency.
The bombs have stopped booming in the RIMS Campus for long and the patients are being catered to even during these difficult Covid times. Some of the Wards are almost of the state of art on par with any leading private hospitals in the country. And it is only hoped that his detractors both within and without RIMS stop interfering in his job and he be allowed to concentrate the rest of his tenure with full focus on the development of RIMS and raise to a podium where it will not fall and further with an inbuilt self-checking mechanism.
(Sanjoo Thangjam is a columnist based in Imphal and Yambem Laba is a veteran journalist and representative of the Kolkata-based national news daily The Statesman).