Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Sep. 7: The director of Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR) Dr. Sedevi Angami on Saturday said that no institute or organisation can survive without making a little profit.
He was reacting to reports in some sections of the local press, published on Saturday, in which the Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) had cast aspersions on financial aspect, working system and several other management-related issues of the hospital.
Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Angami said that seeking profit does not mean commercialising healthcare to the extent of turning it into a corporate venture. “As far as our rate is concerned, it is very reasonable; and to revise it, we have to ask the government for subsidies.”
On the NPRAAF statement that CIHSR was revitalised with an estimated project cost of INR 4,012.92 lakh, the director said that the money was used in constructing and re-constructing buildings, buying hospital equipments and so on.
The forum had also demanded that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) should be rectified to make the association accountable for any financial mismanagement or any legal liability.
“We don’t need to rectify the MoU because decision making is done by the administrative committee under the CIHSR Society, and the president of the Society is the Chief Secretary of Nagaland,” he said, adding that EHA, Christian Medical Centre and the government of Nagaland have equal representation and equal power to vote. “The EHA does not control CIHSR.”
He also clarified that 40% of patients at the hospital were from Assam, not 70% as alleged by the forum in its press release.
According to him, the hospital has around 470 employees, out of which, 400 are from Nagaland. The NPRAAF had claimed that the CIHSR has “about 250 employees (out of which) just a handful of locals are employed”.
He said that the CIHSR is the only mission hospital in the state with ‘finance manual’. “We conduct audit every three months and there is zero corruption. But if anyone points out corruption, I will be happy to address it,” he said.
On the issue of medical college, Angami said that in order to open a medical college at CIHSR, they would obviously need approval from the government, as the state government was also part of the Society. “But it will take several years as we don’t money as well as the medical staff.”
