Kohima, 7 March (MTNews): The NSHRC recently conducted visits to government-run health centers in Kohima and Tseminyu districts to assess the conditions of the hospitals from March 5 to 7, 2024.
The three-day visitation covered 12 health facilities, including Community Health Centers, Primary Health Centers, Health and Wellness Centers, Integrated Ayush Hospital, and sub-centers.
The NSHRC team was led by its Chairperson, Justice Songkhupchung Serto, and Member R. Nzanbemo Lotha, Secretary Limanenla, and representatives from the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Kohima.
The main objective of the visit was to ensure that the right to health, a fundamental human right, is being upheld in these health facilities.
Commenting on the visit to the health facilities, the chairperson said that, by and large, the sub-centers, PHCs, and CHCs, with one or two exceptions – as far as Kohima district is concerned, the buildings are okay. However, they found that manpower management and medicine supplies need improvement.
In all the medical health centers except for the two urban health centers at Kohima—Urban Primary Health Center in Porterlane and Seikhazou, timely supply of medicines, healthcare equipment, and other requirements like bandages, hand gloves, etc., have been expressed by the personnel working in the health centers, he observed.
Serto also said the construction of the CHC at Tseminyu Old Town, which caters to a population of 50,000, requires top priority since the existing building is far from being adequate.
Another common problem found in all the health centers is the lack of water supply except at Chunlikha PHC. Water is not only essential but without it, the maintenance of the hospitals and health centers is difficult as the medical officers have to buy it from private suppliers. Therefore, the commission would like to draw the government’s attention to this issue, he said.
He also pointed out that the power supply at CHC Botsa will require immediate intervention from the department. Delay in doing so may cause irreparable harm to the building itself since the wiring is in poor connection, as the air condition already installed cannot be made functional due to the poor wiring and non-supply of power from the Power Department. The power they get from the solar panels is insufficient for running the CHC.
The hospital or health center can be run successfully only if the doctors and nurses stay in and around the campus or at least within the town or village. But what we find is that most of these hospitals and health centers don’t have accommodation, making it compulsory for them to travel from Kohima.
“If there are no patients (indoor patients) in hospital/health centers of CHC level, it would be because either there are no patients or there are no doctors attending the patients. In the case of the CHCs that we visited, the latter seems to be the case. The government needs to do its part, and the doctors and nurses should also be a little more dedicated to serving the people,” Serto observed.
He went on to add that every other concern of life can be taken care of if health is good, but without good health, every other concern of life may even become meaningless.
The Commission will be discussing with the officers of the Health and Family Welfare department to bring these issues to their notice so that they find ways and means to resolve them, he said.
The NSHRC is an autonomous body and has been functioning since March 2023 after the appointment of the chairperson. The commission exists to protect and promote human rights in the state of Nagaland. It has the authority to inquire into complaints and grievances of human rights violations and recommend appropriate remedies to the government for action.
The Commission is also taking up suo moto cases of custodial deaths, assaults, and coal mine death cases, besides assessing government-run health facilities, educational institutions, and public distribution systems.”