TEZPUR, May 8 � At a time when the State Government is trying to present a rosy picture of development on the health front, gross mismanagement in the newly-started Tezpur Medical College at Tumuki (Bihaguri) near here provides a totally different picture.
Turning the long cherished dream of a full-fledged medical college for the people in the north bank of the Brahmaputra river into a reality, the Tezpur Medical College started functioning recently after it was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
The medical college not only brought in advanced and state-of-the-art medical education, but also tertiary health-care facilities to central Assam, touching upon the sentiments of the people of Sonitpur, besides catering to the health-care needs of the neighbouring districts as also the hill State of Arunachal Pradesh.
The medical college has an annual intake of 100 students as per the MCI norms leading to MBBS degree. The multi-crore project that has been constructed by Bhargava and Association Pvt. Ltd has an accommodation of 500 beds in general wards for all the departments, excluding the paying cabins, as prescribed by the Medical Council of India (MCI), but the medical college has not been able to offer the health-care services in the real sense.
The patients and the common people have alleged that the medical college, established in a bid to provide affordable health-care facility to all sections of the people, is not running smoothly, totally failing to serve the patients because of the lack of an attitude of selfless service among a section of doctors and nurses, and the non-medical staff. Allegations are rife that despite the medical college having sufficient doctors and nurses, in every department, due to the alleged mismanagement, patients fail to get adequate service.
One main reason behind this is absence of doctors. As most of the doctors and other staff are from outside the district, they remain absent from their duties on most occasions. It is alleged that the doctors instead of giving service to the patients of the medical college remain busy in their own chambers located at various places for earning extra money.
For this, the patients often have to consult the junior resident doctors who lack experience in handling complicated cases. �What�s shameful is the fact that some patients, coming for treatment in the medical college, are even referred to State hospitals like Kanaklata Civil Hospital,� a patient said.
On the other hand, because of the poor construction works, the floors and tiles of the medical college building have already started wearing off.
