SILCHAR, Aug 20 - Following the approval from the State government for the visit of an eminent cardiologist from Apollo Hospitals in Chennai to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) for three days a month, the people of Barak Valley are anxiously waiting for Dr Rakesh P Gopal.
The Assam Tribune caught up with the cardiologist over telephone to know his reactions over the development. �I am excited to learn about the latest developments and am looking forward to reach Silchar. I have been to Assam on many occasions and I would love to be among the local doctors at the SMCH. My foremost objective will be to train the doctors on treating patients with cardiac complications,� Dr Gopal said.
Dr Gopal had visited Silchar in March this year, after Padmashree Dr R Ravi Kannan, oncologist and director of Cachar Cancer Hospital, was approached by the Thousand Sayantans group after the death of a 25-year-old Sayantan Chakraborty in October 2019 due to a massive cardiac arrest.
�I never knew Dr Kannan had so much faith in me. If he feels that I am the person to deliver the goods for the people of Barak Valley, I am ready to work at any cost. Besides treating patients, my priority would be to train the local doctors with the kind of skills which would help take care of themselves and I am eager to render my services for this objective,� he said.
On August 14, Khainindra Choudhury, additional secretary with the Health and Family Welfare Department, had written to the Director of Medical Education, Assam, mentioning the approval of the services of Dr Gopal and his team at SMCH in the absence of a qualified cardiologist at the solitary medical college in southern Assam.
Saumitra Shankar Choudhury, cultural activist and a member of Thousand Sayantans group, said, �We lost Sayantan Chakraborty due to lack of cardiac treatment at the SMCH in October 2019. But we led a movement so that no other person suffers from such a fate and we are elated as well as relieved to learn about the government�s approval to the visit of Dr Gopal.�
�We thank Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma for initiating the move, and Dr Kannan who introduced us and the SMCH authorities to Dr Gopal. We also express our gratitude to the SMCH authorities,� he said.
Sources at the SMCH said that the letter by Choudhury mentioned that the travelling expenses of the visiting doctor and his team shall have to be borne by the SMCH management and the approval for initial period of three months may be extended depending on the report of the principal cum chief superintendent of the hospital.