Imkong Walling
Dimapur | July 3
Seldom to one see a government establishment up and running sans funding. There are even cases which get the requisite funding yet are not able to perform its bounden obligations or simply go defunct, afloat in name only.
Government-run Drug De-addiction Centre (DDAC), Dimapur, set up under funding from the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (H & FW) is an exception altogether. It is functioning without any sort of financial assistance from the union ministry for the past three years, living basically on ‘hand-outs’ from the district hospital, Dimapur.
Established in the year 1995 under the aegis of a nation-wide drug de-addiction programme of the Central government, the DDAC, Dimapur is entitled to receive a yearly grant of Rs. 2 lakh. For reasons unknown, the centre has not received the entitlement for the past three years. The nationwide programme was started in 1987-88, later modified in 1992-93; the scheme was initiated under funding from the Union Ministry of H & FW and implemented through the states.
According to the available records, there are 122 such centres spread across the country with a nodal agency serving as the nerve centre established under AIIMS, New Delhi christened the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre. In the north-east, there are said to be 43 de-addiction centres under the scheme, of which 8 is in Nagaland. Of the 8 centres in the state, DDAC, Dimapur is said to be the only one that can be termed as up and running. And the irony is there are only six known practicing psychiatrists in Nagaland – two working at the Mental Hospital in Kohima, one at Naga Hospital Kohima, one in the Directorate of H & FW, one in Tuensang and one appointed at the DDAC, Dimapur. It is the norm for DDACs under the scheme to have a visiting or a resident psychiatrist.
The 8-bedded DDAC is barely making ends meet, managing on assistance from the district hospital attending to not less than 150 in-house patients a year on average. It even attends to patients coming from as far as the Indo-Myanmar border, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. In the absence of funding, the family of the patients is compelled to foot the bills for medicines, which is supposed to come free of cost under the programme. Owing to shortage of attendants, atleast one or two relatives are required to monitor a patient admitted to the centre and make residence there for the duration of the duration of treatment. For recreation, the centre has one television set. Fortunately, Dimapur based cable operator – Global Chapter is providing connection free of cost to the DDAC. Food for the patients is provided by the district hospital.
Nurses and other attendants, who were appointed on contract basis, left their jobs over the last three years because the centre could not afford to foot their monthly salaries. Only the night watchman, it is learned, is reporting to duty despite the backlog in monthly remuneration due.
At present, two in-house nurses are assigned from the neighboring district hospital, who have to sometimes cope with difficult patients suffering from withdrawal symptoms in the absence of male attendants. The nurses function under the psychiatrist in-charge. There is no female ward.
The requirement list reads somewhat like this: four male attendants, atleast, plus female attendants alongwith housekeeping personnel; besides specialist personnel such as a Medical officer, psychiatric nurse, psychotherapist, clinical psychologist, social worker/counsellor (for career guidance).
“Even appointing two nurses is very difficult”, said Dr. DK Mero, Medical Superintendent of the district hospital under the present circumstances. Over the last two years, the centre has intimated the national nodal agency on the non-receipt of the yearly grants in writing but to no avail. Further, it has not received any explanation on why the grant is being held back. Any DDAC is required to publish a yearly activity report and submit it to the nodal agency for consideration of the annual grant.
Dr. Mero said that the centre has not for once failed in sending ‘utilisation certificates’ but for reasons unbeknownst to the people here, funding has been held back for the past three years. They have even sent one representative to Delhi in this regard, Dr. Mero added.
Other de-addiction centres in the north-east are also not faring well in this aspect. DDACs in the region have also collectively tried addressing the problem but that has also come to naught, said Dr. C. Kezo, psychiatrist in-charge of the DDAC, Dimapur. It was done through one of the regional nodal offices based at RIIMS, Imphal. The DDAC at RIIMS, it was learned, is facing a similar predicament.
