Indian Nursing Council may de-recognise institute for paucity of facilities
[ Junroi Mamai ]
NAHARLAGUN, Jun 26: The hostel building of the Arunachal Pradesh State Nursing School near the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) here is in a dilapidated state and posing threat to the lives of the 95 students staying there.
Established in 2014, an old building was handed over to the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) by the public works department for the nursing school along with a makeshift hostel building.
Presently, the makeshift hostel presents a sad picture with its leaking roofs, rainwater clogged bathrooms, poor drainage system and water supply, besides absence of basic amenities like tables and chairs for the students.
“Every time it rains, there is knee-deep water in all our rooms which seeps through numerous leaks in the ceiling. We have to keep buckets in our rooms whenever it rains to collect dripping rainwater. Even our kitchen and bathrooms are flooded with water from the drains, and we have to clean it every morning,” said one of the students.
On Friday night, a big portion of the hostel campus adjacent to which the TRIHMS authorities have been carrying out construction work, caved in, following heavy downpour. At present, only a few metres of land is left of the hostel campus putting the lives of the students at risk.
“When the portion of our hostel campus collapsed, all of us panicked and informed our parents who came and took up the matter with the school authorities the next day.
The authorities then decided to temporarily shift only the 32 students of third year to the newly constructed hostel of TRIHMS, but for a period of 20 days only. We do not know where we would be shifted after 20 days. Right now, we have our meals at the hostel then go back to the temporary hostel at TRIHMS. Apart from this we have been assigned duties at the hospital too. This leaves no time for us to study for our exams which are scheduled for next month,” said one of the final year students.
While talking about the problems, Arunachal Pradesh State Nursing School, Principal, Boa Yania Taw said that the nursing school is also short staffed.
“There is shortage of manpower. Even our ministerial staffs have been temporarily deputed from the Health department. Moreover, senior staff nurses from TRIHMS have been assigned to work here as tutors as no designated posts were created against the institute for since the last one and a half years,” she added.
She also informed that the institute lacks proper water supply, drainage and has only one laboratory, while the hostel building is inadequate to house the 95 students.
“We had, on several occasions submitted representations to the higher authorities but there had been no initiative from their end. We are also worried about the future of the institute as the Indian Nursing Council (INC) has been very critical of the current state of the institute. Our institute does not have the required facilities as prescribed under the INC guidelines for a state level nursing diploma institute. The INC could de-recognise the institute if the state government and authorities do not take urgent steps soon,” she added.
Incidentally, the state nursing school here and another GNM training institute at Pasighat are the only two institute of nurses’ training in the entire state.
When asked what steps have been initiated by the department to address current predicament faced by the students, Director Medical Education, Dr RD Khrimey said that the department had earlier made a proposal to allocate Rs 50 lakhs per year budget for providing rented accommodation for the students and file has been currently processed.
Stating that the department is aware of the various problems which plague the institute, Dr Khrimey blamed fund constraints as the reason behind the present status of the nursing school.
Meanwhile, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has also strongly urged the Health minister and the officials of the Health department to immediately expedite the process of shifting of the Arunachal State Nursing School from the present campus to another location soon.
AAPSU Secretary, Marli Kamki, who had earlier visited the campus stated that although, the 3rd year students have been shifted temporarily, the matter is far from being resolved.
“We strongly urge upon the department of health not to resort to short-term solutions but ensure permanent solution to the issues,” he added.
