Healthcare improves but people still eye big cities

GUWAHATI: Though the health sector of the state has gone through a lot of changes in the last decade and the state today offers advanced health care facilities at affordable prices, people from the state still go to bigger cities for treatment as they feel the state is still not ready to provide good treatment. However, doctors here claim that the state is slowly gearing up to cater to patients from outside the state.
Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) receives the maximum number of patients from different parts of the state and the doctors. Kabul Saikia, principal of GMCH said, "We wouldn't say that we are catering to a lot of patients from places like Delhi or Chennai, but we regularly have patients from places like Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim too."
"Earlier, the hospitals did not even have facilities like CT scan and people preferred going to places like Vellore for the same. But, for a middle-class family, it was not possible to spend so much. But, now the facility is available here itself," Saikia said.
Specialized surgeries, which were a far-fetched dream earlier, are being done here now and it is said that patients from outside the northeast too come here for treatment.
At the operation smile care unit at Mohendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH), hundreds of specialized surgeries on cleft lip and cleft palate, an inborn deformity can be corrected by surgery, absolutely free of cost.
Ajit Verma, executive director of Operation Smile care, India said, "Even if you go to hospitals in big metros like Delhi, a full-fledged centre which caters solely to cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries are not easy to find."
"Here, there is a full-fledged team dedicated solely to this surgery. Though we mainly cater to patients from the northeast, patients from outside the northeast too come here for the surgery," he said.
Other than the government hospitals, private hospitals in the city too have advanced facilities these days. GNRC, a city-based private hospital has advanced facilities for surgeries and patients from places like Bangladesh, UP and Bihar too comes here for treatment.
Mrinal Hazarika, an official of the hospital said, "We have a specialized surgery under ENT, cochlear implant for which we get patients from Kolkata too. We also have specialized neurosurgery facilities for which we receive patients from all parts of the northeast."
Anwesha Tamuly, a school teacher said, "There has been development in the health sector, but still in critical cases, we go outside the state for treatment as there are a lot of loopholes in the health sector of the state."
She added, "The condition of the health care facilities in the villages are still very bad and unless there is an overall development in both the urban and rural areas, treating patients from outside the northeast is a distant dream."