Bonnie Konyak
Dimapur/Mon | November 30
As Nagaland wakes up to its 45th Statehood Day on December 1, many ordinary people across the State will find it difficult to cheer or let alone even remember what it means to achieve statehood. The reasons are simple. For instance, like all state institutions in Nagaland, the Government’s health sector in Mon district is embroiled in gross neglect. But the pinch is felt more acutely in the district because there are no private health care institutions here. The District Civil Hospital in Mon, as the only hospital that caters to the entire population of nearly three lakh people has only 50 beds. And besides one small X-ray machine, the hospital has very little gadget for proper diagnosis of patients. “We have to send the patients to Sonari in Assam to get their ultrasound and then diagnose them” said one nurse while speaking to this reporter.
Moreover, Mon Civil Hospital has altogether seven doctors including the Medical Superintendent, but the doctors are divided into two groups, ‘Kohima group’ and ‘Mon group’.
The doctors have worked out a system by which the Kohima group, who are doctors with their homes and sometimes private clinics in Kohima, work at the district hospital for 15 days while the Mon doctors rest for 15 days and vice versa. The reason is, these out stationed doctors do not have government quarters in which to live and serve full-time.
In addition to this, as mentioned earlier, the entire district including its sole hospital is without a gynecologist but the hospital has its very own bio-chemist for its non-existent laboratory. Ironically, the hospital has a surgical specialist who is rendered useless as there are no anesthetists to assist him in surgery.
Thankfully, the hospital has a pediatric who along with the Medical Superintendent, an eye specialist, provides some “face-saving” mechanism to this lone hospital of the district.
Another grappling problem is electricity, which according to sources in the hospital, is more acute in the hospital colony. There are gory tales of nurses having to deliver babies by candle light. Last month in October, when the colony transformer had broken down for more than two weeks, about 400 vials of immunization for children had been spoilt for lack of a freezer.
The rest of the Health Centers in the rest of the district is no better with acute shortage of doctors faced by the department. Excluding, the civil hospital in the district headquarter, altogether there are 66 CHCs, PHCs and SHCs but only 14 Medical Officers (MO) to oversee them. Out of these 14 doctors, two are on study leave and according to the testimony of many villages; most of the MO are never in station in their place of posting. This causes great difficulties for the villagers who often have to go all the way to the district hospital in Mon to be treated, only to be further referred to Assam due to lack of facilities in the only hospital in the district.
While the people of the district struggle under such condition, an officer under the Chief Medical Office (CMO) in Mon remarks in sadness, “I am about to resolve not to say anything from this New Year…everything is so politicized…its hopeless” while adding that the only redemption from the problem would be to sensitize the people. According to the Nagaland State Human Development Report, by the year 2020, it is possible to see a developed Nagaland—with the population under control, the economy growing at accelerated pace, infrastructure such as transport, communication and power improved to modern levels and qualitative health care being provided to the people. The point is that even after 45 years of Statehood we are still groping in the dark.
This news feature has been produced in fulfillment of a Media Fellowship with the National Foundation for India.
