Dear Editor,
The Trifurcation of health department was done in the year 2013 which involved the process of curving out of Directorate of Medical Edn, Research and Training(DME) from Directorate of Health Services(DHS) along with Directorate of Family Welfare(DFW) with the approval of the state cabinet during the time of N.Tuki. It was carried out by some good people along with the technical support of Arunachal Pradesh Doctors Association (APDA).
There were lot of hiccups initially from the health department itself for some senior health officers may be didn’t want it to happen with reasons best known to them. I am saying this because truly there were many hindrances in processing the government file on the trifurcation of health dept.
Consequently, it was realised with untiring efforts of few which included a dedicated team with a mission to accomplish the dream of better functioning of the health department and better access to health by everyone in the community.
The Governor gave the formal approval in the same year and there were proper instructions given to the concerned for early establishment and functionalisation of DME and DFW along with DHS.
The people behind the efforts had a vision for the welfare of the health sector in the state.
To my knowledge the Nursing school comes under DME and the present TRIHMS also need to come under DME but may be due to personal interests of few of officers, it is not and now they have a separate Director. Amazing though!
Since then 5 years have elapsed but unfortunately the ASNS do not have a separate fund for proper functioning.
The Director of DME is functioning in a dingy and shady structure with very less infrastructures and technical support of functioning. There is also very less independent manpower in the directorate.
The principal of ASNS is not yet designated but just an assigned head.
May be it is because we spend hardly a single digit percent on health as seen in the state budget outlay.
The Director, DME has stated earlier that an amount of Rs 55 Lakh per year has been proposed for the functioning of the school but the state government is yet to sanction the same.
The AAPSU has recently appealed the Health Minister to look into the dilapidated condition of the ASNS and especially the welfare of the nursing students at Naharlagun. Hopefully things would be materialised soon.
It is evident that the manpower in the health department are giving their best shot but the state government need to do more and the people involved need to function and let others also function without creating hassles. The DME has to be instilled with separate independent power and resources to do them. The manpower in DME also needs to garner more of dedication and consistency.
Yours,
Bikash Bage
Department of Sociology
Rajiv Gandhi University