HP Health Minister Criticised for Supporting Renaming of Shimla While Healthcare Deteriorates

Himachal Pradesh’s Health Minister, Vipin Singh Parmar has been one of the ministerial voices in the state who are advocating that the state capital’s name be changed from Shimla to ‘Shyamala’. Taking a cue from the recent renaming of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh to Prayagraj, the saffron party’s allied right-wing groups have come up with this demand, which has created a stir on social media.

Therefore, when Parmar spoke in favour of the name change, many questioned his stance, and even questioned his efficiency as the health minister, considering that the quality of health care in the state has been degrading.

While the state government boasts of reducing neonatal mortality rate, it remains at 25 per cent per 1,000 live births. Its other health indicators are also ranked among the top-ranking states of the country. But, the reality on ground is different.

Patients still cry for quality healthcare at tertiary level, and basic healthcare at the primary level because the state lacks enough specialists and medical officers.

The government declared that it will open five more medical colleges (three have already started) to make up for the shortage of doctors at both the levels, but it is still grappling to hold back specialists who are looking for greener pastures.

Adding to the misery, the state has been reeling under anomalous outbreaks of dengue (4,041 cases) and scrub typhus (1,632 cases), mainly in Bilaspur, Solan, Mandi, Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra, which have claimed 24 lives (19 due to dengue and five due to scrub typhus) until October 16 this year.

In an interview with a senior staff correspondent of Times of India, Parmar claimed that the state will emerge as a “health hub” for its people, medical students and tourists. It will produce 750 MBBS and 82 specialists every year in three to five years’ time, when all institutions will function, taking care of the “shortage” of doctors at tertiary and primary level in the state.

But, towns like Shimla, Mandi, Chamba, Bilaspur continue to report regular flow of hepatitis patients in hospitals, with two deaths out of 300 patients so far, though the outbreak season starts in winter.

Clubbing these outbreaks with the strike or protests by resident doctors, anganwadis and the staff of 108 national ambulance service for more pay and wages, they have managed to push the health services to a corner that still remains a “priority number four” after education, PWD and irrigation, if one judges it by the budget allocation of the state government which got Rs 2,181 in 2018-19 a 11.5 per cent hike as compared with last year.

After completing 10 months in office, the present government is struggling to cope with the rush of patients at the two tertiary care hospitals in the state — the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC), Tanda, and at zonal hospitals, too. The critically ill patients who need “super specialty care” continue to be referred to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and other private hospitals in the region, as the state lacks specialists while quality care facilities remain deficient.

The super specialty block of the IGMC, which is under construction is yet to be completed, while the work on AIIMS at Bilaspur is yet to start due to a delay in land transfer. The 100-seat Ner Chowk Medical College in Mandi is starting its functioning from October 20, but it has no facilities like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed tomography (CT) scan to provide quality healthcare to patients.

As per reports in the local dailies, the members of the HP Medical Officers’ Association say, “What to talk about the new colleges set to come up in Nahan, Chamba, Hamirpur and Ner Chowk? The old IGMC and Tanda medical college are still being run without holding the regular departmental promotion councils (DPCs) by the state bureaucracy, which rules the roost.”

As per the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines, minimum 24 different faculties are needed to run a new medical college. But, current practice is that the successive state governments are hiring faculties of the IGMC and Tanda by sending them on deputation for a few months to paint a rosy picture of faculty position in colleges during inspection by the MCI.

“But even the MCI inspection was nullified by Union Health Minister JP Nadda under the new norms that has given a free run to medical colleges” said Sanjay Chauhan, former mayor of Shimla and a senior leader of the CPI(M).

Sources claim that “while the Nahan college management hired most of the retired doctors from an inoperative medical college from Pathankot, the Chamba Medical College is being run by the retired and hired doctors from J&K”.

These colleges are being run in the district hospital buildings, and provide a few diagnostic facilities for patients.

“Health minister should pay more attention to the situation of degrading quality of health in the state which is his duty. Renaming a historically important place like Shimla, is just another attempt of the right wing groups to rewrite history, and the honourable minister should not pay heed to such demands. Every day, newspapers carry reports of the sorry state of our healthcare in the state, that should be his prime focus,” said Chauhan.