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Health and the city

By Rituparna Goswami Pande |
They say “health is wealth” but in Assam “ill health means drain of wealth”. The people of Assam seem to have lost their faith in the medical facilities and treatment provided in Assam. The commercialization of the medical profession has totally disillusioned the common public. Minor ailments require a plethora of health check ups the cost of which burns a hole in the pockets of poor patients. However, the ones who can afford prefer to go outside the state for treatments without taking the chances of wrong diagnosis or pricy hospital bills. The government hospitals are the last resorts of suffering patients who brave the unhygienic, rat infested, garbage heaped hospitals in hope of relief.

There is no dearth of able doctors in Assam. The recent diamond jubilee celebration of the Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh saw the assembly of renowned doctors all products of AMC, similarly there are many other doctors who are products of various other colleges in the state or otherwise. Yet the medical facilities in Assam are not up to the mark. As a result of which more and more patients make a beeline to the Apollo Hospitals in Madras or AIIMS in Delhi etc.

Though many nursing homes have come up in the city they are unable to cater to the various budgetary or medical needs of patients. However, the move by the state government to open up a 200 bed civil hospital at Amingaon within a span of two years is a welcome move and it will serve beneficial to the people and also ease the burden of patients on the two premier government hospitals in Guwahati viz the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMC) and Mahendra Mohan Choudhary Hospital (MMCH)

Assam chief minister laid the foundation stone of the proposed Kamrup District Civil Hospital which is set to be constructed on an area of 2162.30 square meters at Amingaon , at the North Bank of the Brahmaputra. It is a joint venture by the Assam Government and the Assam chapter of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The hospital will be set up at a cost of Rs 19.32 crore and will cater to patients of all departments – pediatrics, orthopedics, gynecology, surgery etc. It will be equipped with all modern technologies.

Such steps are certainly a ray of hope for the health sector in Assam.
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Journalist, writer

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jaay's picture

Submitted by jaay on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 03:14
I will consider them another ASSET to the government rather than for people. I think medical health policy should be on the mind of the government, provide people with medical policy so that they can access medical attention at nominal cost, no matter if it means paying premium to the government for the service, but then facilities have to be of that standard. Medical services need not be seen as responsibility of government, society as a whole needs to contribute, good doctors coming out of these colleges should come back to them for serving people, general public should contribute with voluntary services etc. But then it looks like a distant dream. Nice thoughts, nice article.

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