To resolve the standoff between the Cardiology department and the administration of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), a meeting was convened on Thursday.
The meeting was held as per a directive issued by the Meghalaya High Court.
The meeting was chaired by the additional chief secretary of Meghalaya government, R.V. Suchiang.
The meeting was also attended by union health ministry’s joint secretary Gayatri Mishra and Meghalaya health secretary Pravin Bakshi.
Also read: Shillong: HC intervenes, surgeries in NEIGRIHMS’ Cardiology Dept to resume
NEIGRIHMS director Dr DM Thapa and Cardiology department head Dr Animesh Mishra and representatives from Amrit Pharmacy were also present at the meeting.
On Wednesday, the division bench of Meghalaya HC, headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, took serious note of the internal differences between the Cardiology department and the authorities of NEIGRIHMS.
The differences led to the postponement of about 34 surgeries which severely affected the patients admitted to NEIGRIHMS.
The court directed that an additional chief secretary should chair the meeting for coming up with a long-term solution to ensure that such situation does not arise again.
The court also asked to submit the report by Monday.
When contacted, neither the officials close to the NEIGRIHMS administration nor the officials in the Cardiology department were willing to share about the outcome of the meeting.
“We cannot reveal anything now as the matter has to be reported to the court,” an official said.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the Cardiology department has been asked to submit a list of equipment required for conducting surgery of heart-related patients to Amrit Pharmacy so that it can procure the same within five to six hours.
The condition of one patient was said to be critical prompting resident doctors to rush to the director’s office.
Meghalaya health secretary Pravin Bakshi also rushed to NEIGRIHMS.
Sources informed that NEIGRIHMS authorities tried to get the required equipment from outside the hospital pharmacy.
It was not known if the required equipment have been procured within five to six hours as assured.
Earlier, surgery of patients could not be conducted in the Cardiology department of NEIGRIHMS due to non-availability of required equipment such as stents and pacemakers.
The NEIGRIHMS administration claimed that the services in the Cardiology department were shut down because the head of the Cardiology department was “not co-operating with the administration” with regards to making treatment of poor patients affordable as per the union ministry of health and family welfare regulations.
But Cardiology department head Dr Mishra denied the allegations and stated that there was not a single patient, who was operated in NEIGRIHMS by violating the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) guidelines.
Dr Mishra even invited patients from Meghalaya and outside to file valid complaints, if they have found that the department of Cardiology has violated the guidelines.