On January 18, a team led by DESAM secretary general Leishangthem Lamyanba and DESAM Jiribam District Council president Laishram Bilaks, inspected the hospital and found it in deplorable condition.
TFM Desk
Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) has submitted a complaint letter to the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) to intervene and take up necessary action in public interest to ensure better healthcare facilities in Jiribam district.
Jiribam Hospital, which is the only hospital of Jiribam District, seems to exist only in name, DESAM said in the letter submitted on Friday. Most of the time, wards of the hospital were found closed except for casualty and emergency service manned by a single doctor without proper medication. The emergency wards even faced shortage of cotton wool and gauge, it added.
Even though the state cabinet has approved to upgrade Jiribam Hospital to a district hospital, there is a lack of technician, specialist and logistics to function the hospital properly. Many doctors are still getting their salary without being at the hospital regularly. No Punitive action has been taken up, DESAM alleged.
Stating that there are no facilities in nearby areas to buy medicine, the student body said also alleged that the hospital’s pharmacy was also found closed most of the time.
As there is no facility of Biometric attendance, doctors and other medical staff of the hospital came to duty on their own will. Jiribam CMO Dr E Okendro Singh also responded that he is aware of the unpunctuality of the staff and doctors posted there, but the absentee doctors were registered as present in the attendance register of the hospital, it added.
DESAM further alleged that Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) of the hospital Dr Okram Jatinkumar is unpunctual and MO Dr Sudipta Das who was assigned by the DMS to look after the hospital is also unpunctual and is negligent and does not even know the names of the doctors and staff posted there.
The CMO had complained even to the Health director about their unpunctuality, but no tangible action has been taken up so far, it alleged. The rate of patient admitting to the hospital has considerably reduced due to inadequacy in the hospital and the people of Jiribam have dubbed the hospital as “Refer Hospital” for referring almost patients to other hospitals, it added.
DESAM also said that it had appealed to the government to open a Blood Bank in the hospital at the earliest but that has fallen on deaf ear due to negligence of the authority. The hospital has not provided medicines for Tuberculosis and Malaria for the last two-three years, it alleged.
On January 18, a team led by DESAM secretary general Leishangthem Lamyanba and DESAM Jiribam District Council president Laishram Bilaks, inspected the hospital and found it to be in deplorable condition. It had drawn the attention of the chief minister who also held the portfolio of Health regarding the shortfalls in the infrastructure and un-punctuality of the doctors and staff of the hospital.