The Meghalaya unit of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has slammed the NPP-led MDA government over the deplorable healthcare situation in the State.
The party also came out with a video on its official Twitter handle featuring a series of healthcare problems in the State which remain unattended by the MDA government.
The video features a woman who had to move to a private hospital in Mairang due to a lack of hospitals yet the medication prescribed to her was ineffective. Yet, they had to move to NEIGRIHMS again making things even more difficult for her and her family.
According to the AITC, institutional deliveries in the State are at a very low level of 51.4 per cent.
“From April 2020 to July 2020, as many as 877 newborns and 61 pregnant women died due to a lack of access to healthcare centres. According to the reports from the Department of Family and Health Welfare, Meghalaya, most of the women died because they were not admitted to hospitals or health centres for institutional delivery,” the party said.
The AITC also cited the data by the National Family Health Survey Report, Government of India (2019-20) which stated that 54 per cent of women in Meghalaya have anaemia, including 24 per cent with mild anaemia, 28 per cent with moderate anaemia, and 2 per cent with severe anaemia.
Further, the AITC said that Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for Meghalaya is 34 deaths per 1000 live births compared to the world with 29 while Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is alarmingly high with Meghalaya registering 197 deaths per 1,00,000 deliveries.
The AITC also said that its MLA George B. Lyngdoh has highlighted in the autumn session of Assembly that neonatal mortality in the State has increased by 20.6 per 1000 births in rural areas, calling it alarming. In total Meghalaya has the highest mortality rate at 29 per 1000 live births among the smaller states.
According to the AITC, Meghalaya also faces a 65 per cent shortage in medical specialists and the citizens of the State continue to suffer due to a lack of medical attention.
“The shortfall of 109 specialists out of 112 in rural Community Health Centres (CHCs) including the Bajengdoba CHC in North Garo Hills is yet another problem that continues to rack the rural areas of the State,” the party said.
It also said that Meghalaya is now tagged as the cancer capital of the country, where one in every five males and one in every nine females is affected with the disease.
“Yet the ruling MDA government is completely nonchalant about the problems of people of Meghalaya,” the AITC concluded.
