Cardiology department of SMCH almost paralyzed

From our Special Correspondent

Silchar, Nov 17: The noble steps taken by the Government of Assam for installing pacemakers among the poor people in all the medical colleges seem to have got a setback in Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH). The department of cardiology is presently running without any qualified doctor with DM degree. With the help of a registrar, the super specialty department is functioning for mesake only. The posts of associate professor as well as assistant professor are lying vacant. This problem has cropped up after Dr. P C Sarma was transferred to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in December 2016.

 It is a fact that no doctor without DM degree can install pacemaker. The present registrar Dr. A H Ahmed has no such degree which has created serious crisis in the cardiology department. Moreover, if a patent undergoing treatment here is referred to another centre of treatment for better and updated heart care, the registrar is not authorized to do it. This may pose threat to life for patient. It is worth mentioning that the cardiology department started its journey in this SMCH in 1986. It is desigted as super specialty department since then.

 At the initial stage, the department has six bed ICU with the facilities of ECO, TMT, Halter and Pacemaker OT. After the retirement of Dr. M th as departmental head in 2012, Dr. P C Sarma and Dr. A H Ahmed continued to run the department. The same year Dr. Prab Jyoti Bhattacharjee was transferred here as assistant professor in the cardiology department from GMCH. Unfortutely, his services were attached with GMCH. The cruel joke was that he was promoted as associate professor in SMCH in 2015. But, the patients never for a day got his services.

 In July 2017, Dr. Barli Dutta was transferred to SMCH cardiology department from GMCH. It was a travesty of fate that Dr. P C Sarma and Dr. Barli Dutta both went on indefinite leave after joining GMCH and SMCH respectively. In this very crisis period, Dr. Prab Jyoti Bhattacharjee was transferred to GMCH. Giving this grim backdrop, Biplob Kumar Goswami, general secretary, Grahak Suraksha Samiti (GSS), said some people’s representatives of this region raise the issue of opening cardiac surgery and neurosurgery wings in SMCH often.

 According to him, the priority should be to revamp the cardiology department first which is virtually non functioning. Apart from that, the undergraduate and postgraduate students have no teaching facility. In view of this critical condition of the cardiology department, GSS insists that Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Minister of Health, Education and Fince, should take steps to post a departmental head and fill up the vacant posts. Otherwise, the patients will be left to fend for themselves and the poorest among them will have no way out to survive than to embrace the ultimate fate.