The West Garo Hills district administration has sought cooperation from the people of the area in the operation of the sub divisional hospital at Jengjal under Dadenggre Civil Sub Division in the district.
A meeting was held yesterday which was attended by health minister, James Sangma who is also the local MLA, principal secretary of health, Sampath Kumar, deputy commissioner, Ram Singh, officials from the health department, land donors and locals.
In a post after the meeting, the DC informed that the hospital was being upgraded from a PHC to a SD hospital with a focus in maternity and child care due to strategic importance of Jengjal and high incidence of maternal and child mortality in the area. The hospital will have specialists and super specialists from CMC Vellore who will cater to referrals from all across Garo Hills.
Further the tenure of the public-private partnership would be for five years only and no permanent handover to any NGOs would be done as was rumoured. This aspect had earlier been objected to by some locals.
In another major decision, the hospital would be run under the PPP mode but would remain a government hospital with no extra charges to patients.
“It will be like any other government hospital. At present there are more than 20 such centres/hospitals that are running on PPP successfully,” said the DC.
Ram Singh added that no jobs would be lost in the transition as jobs already provided to the donors would remain as would the posts of doctors and other health staff that were filled up and deputed elsewhere. The DC asserted that any such concerns would be addressed.
Referring to the matter being taken to the HC of Meghalaya, the DC said that there was no stay or injunction on the proposal of the government though vested interested persons were misleading the people on the matter. This he asserted would only harm the interest of the poor people looking for much needed medical care.
The DC appealed to all concerned to cooperate in the efforts of the government as it was taken through a transparent, open tender process keeping in mind the sufferings of the mothers and children.
