Guwahati: Assam’s healthcare system is improving with new medical, nursing, and dental colleges being established, and health sub-centres transforming into health and wellness centres in rural areas.

Dr. Siddharth Singh, IAS, Commissioner and Secretary to the Govt of Assam Medical Education and Research Department in an exclusive conversation with Business-Northeast spoke on the various new initiatives taken by the Assam Government to begin in recent times to improve the healthcare delivery system in Assam.

BNE: Recently, Northeast got its first AIIMS in Changsari, Assam. What would you say on that?

Siddharth Singh: AIIMS Guwahati, is a welcome step for the NorthEast. We can say that such an initiative is one of the prime examples of collaborative work by central and state government. With this step, we will have the highest quality of medical care facilities available in this region. From the state government side, AIIMS Guwahati campus in 189 acres with earth filling, adequate water supply, drainage system, and electricity supply, along with an electric substation has been provisioned.
The academic, treatment and infrastructure of the institute will be wholly developed by the Government of India. This will be a boon for the northeastern people, especially the state of Assam.

BNE: How much is the state equipped with advanced technology in the medical sector? And when will the state overcome the lag in this sector?

Siddharth Singh: I would agree that for a very long period of time state did not have adequate medical infrastructure, and a lot of people preferred going outside the region for treatment.

However, the position of healthcare in this region is undergoing rapid change. With a pool of medical colleges coming up in the state, many tertiary care institutes are being established in the state as well as huge cancer care facilities have come up in for the state. However, it is difficult to say of when patients will stop preferring another region instead of their own place but flow of people going outside the state for treatment has reduced now.

In the next 4-5 years, I believe most of people will be able to avail all types of required medical treatments within their own state. We will continue to provide improved medical care facilities to the people here. Five years down the line, I believe we will have a state-of-the-art medical infrastructure in Assam.

BNE: After the recent collaboration with IIT Guwahati, what are other initiatives the state is planning in the healthcare sector of Assam?

Siddharth Singh: We are indeed exploring ways for more collaboration. In fact, one of the  biggest collaborations in the healthcare sector recently has been with the Tata Trusts, where we have established the Assam Cancer Care Foundation, a Sec-8 (not-for-profit) company, under which we have established a chain of cancer hospitals. A total of seven hospitals were inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi last year. Another three hospitals are going to be fully functional by the end of year 2023, while the construction for another seven cancer hospitals is about to begin.

Similar collaboration is underway with IIT Guwahati to establish a high-end research institute along with a hospital which will bring in sunshine technologies like wearables, gene editing, organ transplant, and precision medicine to the research map of Assam. Further ways are being explored for the establishment of the South-Asian Cancer Research Institute in Assam, which is envisioned as one of the best cancer research institutes in the country. We will have collaborations with more of academic institutes and private players to take medical care forward in this region.

BNE: So far, what are the changes implemented through the medical colleges in Assam and other northeastern states?

Siddharth Singh: Medical Colleges in Assam have been a huge success story. Till 2010, we had only three medical colleges. But under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was Health Minister earlier, a series of developments have taken place in the health sector in Assam over the years.

In the last 9-10 years, we have added 9 more medical colleges and in the last year we have been allowed to start 3 more medical colleges which is unprecedented for us. With this the state will have 12 medical colleges, and going ahead we will have an overall of 24 medical colleges which are at different stages of construction and conception now. Almost every district of Assam will have its own medical college going ahead. Along with this we will have adequate availability of qualified doctors in the state.

Assam is the biggest state in the northeast, and being the gateway, improvement in the medical sector of Assam will also help the other northeastern states to develop. Moreover, other NE states are also coming up with their own medical colleges. The scenario of healthcare services in the NE region will change rapidly, and four to five years down the line we will have more trained doctors and medical professionals available at different levels. I would say this is one of the major success stories of the Assam Government.

BNE: Five years down the line, will a new era of medical services begin with so many of the medical colleges here?

Siddharth Singh: It surely will change the scenario of the medical sector of Assam. Earlier we had around 400 medical graduates coming out every year. But with the addition of the recent medical colleges at Nalbari, Nagaon and Kokrajhar area of Assam, now we will have a total of about 1500 medical graduates passing out every year. Another 776 Post Graduates and 47 super specialists’ seats are also available in the government sector in Assam. We have envisioned that in the next 4-5 years’ time, we will have 3000 graduates passing out annually, creating a huge pool of doctors, eventually leading to better equipped and more medical institutions, subcentres, primary health care (PHCs), district hospitals along with improved set of medical healthcare facilities available for the people. Simultaneously, we are also working on starting more dental, nursing, and paramedical colleges. We are focused on developing the entire gamut of the medical professionals that are required to run these facilities, which will have a huge impact on the overall health parameters of the state. In the next 3-4 years, there will be lots of improvement.

BNE: How much of the healthcare schemes and programmes has actually been implemented by the government hospitals? Are the needy ones really covered?

Siddharth Singh: Few of the schemes like National Health Mission (NHM) in the primary health sector have received huge funding from the government of India and the state government, and are being fully utilised by the state. Further funding under different programmes has been used to develop the medical colleges of the state. Apart from the central government, the state government have also funded such programmes from its own resources. One of the major schemes that have benefitted the state is PradhanMantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, which has been utilised significantly in the last 2 years.

BNE: Any new measures to improve the healthcare system in the remote areas of Assam?

Siddharth Singh: As far as the rural area of this region are concerned a revolutionary change have taken place. Most of the sub-centres are transformed into health and wellness centres. More than 4000 health and wellness centres have been established in the state which will cover almost all the places of Assam. These health centres will have a dedicated team under a Community Health Office (CHO) who will carry out various health surveys for the particular area, treat the patients, provide consultations for preventive diseases along with additional facilities like teleconsultations. The designated CHO can also refer the patients to higher health centres whenever required. These centres are mainly developed to identify diseases at a very early stage and treat them accordingly. This system can be a load reducer for the secondary and tertiary healthcare centres and change the healthcare scenario in a big way.

Apart from that, a lot of teleservices are being available under National Health Mission and other state and national level programmes. Most of the remote areas are now connected through such media and health services are now available to them at the doorstep.

BNE: What the government has thought in the recruitment with so many of the medical colleges and hospitals already in the states’ pipeline?

Siddharth Singh: A mass appointment distribution drive is being organized by the government on May 11, 2023. A lot of faculties, laboratory staff, other technicians are being appointed on a regular basis to meet the need of these healthcare centres. However, we also try to get doctors from other states in case of the lack of adequate availability of such specialists doctors in our hospitals here. At present we have sufficient medical technicians. In May, after the mega appointment drive, we will have about 6000 more staff in the healthcare department of Assam.