Assam’s rural healthcare struggles with shortage of doctors facilities, says AMSA
AMSA general secretary Dr. Makhan Saikia highlights critical gaps in Assam’s health sector, and urged urgent reforms to ease pressure on GMCH.
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Guwahati, Aug 24: The health sector in Assam is bogged down by various kinds of problems like shortage of doctors, quality ambulances, laboratory facilities, etc., and these issues need to be addressed to improve health care system in the rural and semi-urban areas to reduce pressure on the Gauhati Medical College Hospital, which is overburdened.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Dr Makhan Saikia, general secretary of the Assam Medical Service Association (AMSA), admitted that several major issues need to be addressed to improve health care in rural areas.
He stated that although the State government is improving infrastructure, the shortage of manpower remains a major issue. He pointed out that some places still face a shortage of doctors, with only two to three doctors having to deal with hundreds of patients in a day.
Dr Saikia said that the government has provided X-ray machines, sonography machines, etc., but radiologists have not been posted, and no technician has been posted to operate the machines. The government introduced laboratory facilities, but a shortage of reagents is a major problem and, very often, the doctors are forced to send patients to private laboratories. Medicines provided are also not adequate, and sometimes the required medicines are not provided to the hospitals.
Replying to a question on the oft-repeated allegation that doctors do not want to work in rural areas, Dr Saikia said that the lack of quarters for doctors is a major issue.
He added that in this regard, the AMSA had a meeting with the then Health Minister and the present Chief Minister way back in 2007, and he had assured them to provide refurbished quarters. But the promise is yet to be fulfilled.
Though some hospitals have quarters but those are in a dilapidated state. He also said that lady doctors cannot be asked to stay in places that do not have quarters with boundary walls. Moreover, most hospitals do not have vehicles for field visits, and there is a need for providing ambulances with life support systems to send critical patients to medical college hospitals.
The AMSA general secretary added that promotion avenues for State service doctors should be improved to improve the morale of the doctors. He also alleged that for the last six years, the post of Director of Health Services (Family Planning) is being held by an Assam Civil Service officer. But that is a post of a doctor. The government should immediately post a doctor in the post, he demanded.