The North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Medical Health and Sciences (NEIGHRIMS) at Shillong, supposedly a tertiary health institute for the region, modelled along the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has earned a dubious reputation when it comes to diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Several patients from Nagaland, who were referred to NEIGHRIMS at Shillong, for suspected cancer, had to endure weeks and months of treatment for ‘suspected cancer’ without the doctors being sure about the exact nature of the disease. A number of them who went for treatment elsewhere were given the bad news that they come too late.
The reason for being too late was because the doctor(s) at NEIGHRIMS would reportedly discourage patients from seeking treatment elsewhere by giving them hope for early recovery.
It was revealed, that patients with suspected cancer referred to NEIGHRIMS were sent to various private clinics or hospitals in Shillong for tests and subsequent radiation.
A shocking account from some of the patients said they had to spend weeks and weeks without being told the exact status of the disease they were being treated for. In one case, a patient was reportedly asked to take radiation from a government hospital and then given a capsule, without being told it was an oral Chemo tablet.
In another case, a patient who had spent several months and had to take periodic radiation in a government hospital. Later, when the condition worsened, the patient finally decided to get a second opinion. It was found that the radiation treatment was not sufficient enough to kill the aggressive cancerous cells since the machine was reportedly outdated. Any reputed cancer institute should have a PET/CT scan in order to arrive at a correct diagnosis and ascertain the condition of the disease. However, NEIGHRIMS does not have a PET/CT Scan machine and its doctors send patients to other clinics or hospitals.
The reputation of NEIGHRIMS has taken a hit owing to various factors such– lacking adequate number of experienced medical specialists in various departments and technicians to run the expensive equipments.
Though a central government institute, NEIGHRIMS has the advantage of getting doctors and technical personnel from various AIIMS centres. That has however also proved to be another problem since most of them eventually succeed in evading transfer and the few who go, don’t stay long. It was also learnt that out of the 137 posts in NEIGRIHMS, only 34 have been filled up; the rest are lying vacant.
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