ITANAGAR, 30 Nov: The Indian Medical Association’s Arunachal Pradesh chapter (IMA-AP) and the Arunachal Pradesh Doctors Association (APDA) have expressed deep concern and sorrow over the “undue treatment meted out to the medical team by the Longding district administration recently,” when the team was there, conducting a free cataract surgery camp.
“The medical team, led by a senior eye specialist, was on a noble mission of providing eyesight to underprivileged people by providing free cataract surgeries under the cataract blindness backlog-free (CBBV) initiative of the central government, which is part of the National Programme for Control of Blindness,” the two organisations said in a release on Thursday.
The team had been allotted rooms at the Longding circuit house from 16 to 26 November. However, on the night of 22 November, the team was asked to vacate three rooms. The team complied and vacated three rooms that night itself. But again, on 23 November, when the team was catering to the patients at the district hospital, the medical team was asked to vacate all the rooms allotted to them immediately.
“The medical team was also verbally threatened that an eviction notice would be issued by the district administration if the medical team refused to vacate. Hence the team was compelled to abandon the patients to comply with the verbal order, the release said.
“This shows utter insensitivity and disrespect by the EAC concerned towards the medical team, which included a senior eye surgeon, and also a total disregard and inhumane approach towards the inconvenience of patients,” it said, adding that the incident has “dealt a severe blow to the morale of the medical fraternity in general and the eye camp team in particular.”
“Despite all the hardships faced, the determination and commitment of the medical team remained unwavering. The team went back to the district hospital and vision was restored to a total of 48 visually impaired patients,” it said.
The IMA-AP and the APDA expressed strong protest against the incident and vehemently condemned “the attitude of the district administration.”
“The unpleasant incident could have been avoided, had the administration tackled the problem in a mature manner and made alternative arrangements, instead of asking the medical team to vacate abruptly in the middle of a camp,” the release stated.
The IMA-AP and the APDA have requested the state government to “initiate proper inquiry and administrative action regarding the incident.”
“The government should also ensure that such untoward incident does not recur,” they said.
Longding DA issues clarification, apology over treatment of medical team
Apropos the news headlined ‘Medical team becomes…’, etc, which was published in the Thursday edition of this daily, the Longding district administration has termed the allegation levelled against it “devoid of substantial facts.”
“It is pertinent to mention that the rooms for the medical team were allocated till 21 November, and the extension of period of stay was not solicited by the officials concerned after 21 November. The team was staying in the circuit house without revalidating the stay (after 21 November) through the proper channel,” it said.
“There were scheduled visits of the VIPs in the district, due to which the medical team was requested to vacate the three VIP rooms and shift to other rooms. However, the medical team, acting on their free will, vacated all the rooms that were being occupied by them,” the DA said, adding that “the APSSB exams were scheduled from 26 November, for which room allocation was blocked from 22 November, except for special circumstances.”
“The district administration had no intention to hurt any emotions or humiliate any officials. However, the district administration would like to apologise for any inconvenience that might have been caused unintentionally and inadvertently while following the official rules, procedures and protocol,” it said. (DIPRO)
