Health Minister Alo Libang on Wednesday during a visit to Miao in Changlang district to take stock of the Covid-19 situation announced that the 25 government health centres in the state will be converted to full-fledged and well-equipped hospitals. In this pandemic season, when everything looks gloomy, this news is perhaps a good reason to celebrate. The Covid-19 crisis has really exposed the pathetic condition of the health sector. In fact, at the beginning of the crisis, Arunachal did not have a single hospital with ICU facilities. Since then, a few of the district hospitals, along with the TRIHMS, have been provided with ICUs.
However, much work is still needed to be done to upgrade the health infrastructure in the state. For the last many years the government of Arunachal never made any serious attempt to improve the health sector. Successive governments kept claiming that they would give priority to the health sector. But these words were never translated into action. Going by the past experience, one can only hope that the health minister’s announcement that 25 government health centres in the state will be converted to full-fledged hospitals does not remain a mere media gimmick and turns into reality. If indeed this happens, it will drastically improve the health sector of the state. Learning from the Covid-19 crisis, the state government should give full attention to improving the health sector in the next few years.