Shillong (Meghalaya), March 7 : Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday handed over appointment letters to 425 newly inducted junior specialists, medical officers and dental surgeons, who were recruited for different healthcare institutions.
The induction ceremony held at State Convention Centre, here was attended by Health Minister Dr. Ampareen Lyngdoh and PHE Minister Marcuise N Marak.
Congratulating the newly inducted medical professionals, the Chief Minister urged them to work with utmost commitment and a purpose to serve the society.
“The recruitment process being conducted by the government is completely transparent. You are here because you are capable and you are the best and you have done well in the exam,” he said.
Talking about problems with recruitment in government departments, the Chief Minister said, “We have segregated the recruitment process by establishing a board for education and health, which has simplified the process. In the past, the recruitment process was tedious, and in some cases, it even took six years. The decision to create a separate recruitment board for education and health has ensured that the process for recruitment was speeded up and vacancies could be filled up.”
On strengthening the health sector, the chief minister stated that in terms of percentage, health is given priority with close to 8 percent of the total State budget earmarked for health. “The budget for the health department is the highest in the country, as we aim to strengthen and overhaul the health sector,” he added.
Informing that different interventions are being made in the health sector, he said, “It is a challenging task before us, however, we have made it incumbent on us that irrespective of the obstacles that may come our way, we shall continue to strive to improve the overall aspect of healthcare delivery in the State”.
He further informed that administrative housing units are being set up across the State for medical professionals and others, so that infrastructure is available even in the remotest corner of the State that would facilitate government servants to work in a conducive environment. “Rather than having separate housing complexes for different departments, the government has envisioned creating a housing complex to accommodate doctors, engineers and other government servants within the same complex”, he added.
The CM said that apart from district headquarters where the administrative housing complex is coming up, particular thrust will be given to have such a complex in rural and remote areas for doctors, nurses and other employees of the government. “It cannot be implemented immediately across the state, but the government is committed to start the construction of housing complexes in a mission mode manner”.
He also informed that in the next few years, PHCs and CHCs, including hospitals across the State will get a facelift. “The process has started and within this term of the government, we shall be able to complete and upgrade our health infrastructure”.
He also said that in the next few weeks the patient management system will be launched in the State that will enable monitoring of the patients undergoing treatment in different healthcare institutions.
“We have done the pilot project in Ri Bhoi district and the same will be rolled out in the State. This is one of the unique interventions, which has been taken up by the government and we will be one of the few States in the country to launch such interventions”, he said.
He explained that the patient management system will enable the government to be prepared and allow them to predict disease trends and initiate interventions accordingly. “Technology intervention will be a very big thing in the days to come and we are adapting ourselves with new age tools,” he added.
