Shillong, May 10: The General Secretary of the HYC Mr. Roy Kupar Synrem sent letter to the Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Prestone Tynsong asking the Government to set up health care infrastructure in rural areas to fight COVID-19.
In the letter the HYC acknowledge and commend the Government for the efforts made and steps taken to fight this epidemic and we also wants to put on records our deepest appreciation to all the frontline workers in this fight against Covid-19.
With the surge in active cases and the upward spikes, it is feared that the existing Covid designated wards and beds in the Hospitals in Shillong city will be fully occupied in the next couple of days. This is also because Covid Patients of Category C & D are being brought to the hospitals in Shillong for treatment.
Now, with the cases surging from all parts of the State, it cannot be expected that only Hospitals in Shillong will be mandated with the treatment of Covid cases. Government Hospitals in other Districts of the State like Civil Hospitals in Nongstoin, Mairang, Nongpoh, Jowai, Williamnagar, Tura, Baghmara, Ampati amd Khliehriat as well as MCH Hospitals in Panaliar and Tura should be activated to treat Covid Patients from the respective Districts.
District or Civil Hospitals is supposedly to be staffed with Medical Officers, Physicians, surgeons and other specialist, Nurses and paramedical personnel and has facilities for keeping indoor patients as well as for patients requiring intensive care.
All these District hospitals should have designated beds and wards for Covid Patients as well as equipped with lives saving medicines, oxygen cylinders and ventilators. It is also suggested that the State Government take steps towards making all the 110 Functioning PHCs and 30 CHCs in the State be activated to accommodate and monitors patients falling under Categories A & B, in their respective jurisdictions, if the surge in rural areas is to be stopped, as home isolation is not a viable and practical solution in Villages.
It is a fact that during the First wave in the year 2020, our Grassroots institutions worked hand in hand together with the State Government and played a very vital and highly commendable role in defeating the spread of the Virus in our State and in our Villages in particular.
Almost, every Village which requires its residents to be put in isolation or quarantined, sets up Community quarantine centres and ran them with little or no help from the Government for almost 2 to 3 months. Running and managing a Community quarantine centre in localities or Villages is not an easy task and involves financial resources and manpower.
And with our Dorbars mostly depending on contributions of the residents to carry out any programs and without any funding from the Government or the District Councils, it is understandable that some Dorbar Shnong have expressed their inability to accept the Government’s call for setting up of such Quarantine Centres this time around.
Therefore, the Government should find a solution towards this problem faced by the Dorbar Shnong. It should quickly find a way to assist the Dorbar in setting up the Centres in their localities and villages.
The HYC asked the State Government should convene a Meeting of all the MLAs of the State to discuss and deliberate on the way forward to save our State from this infectious disease.
Although, last year the Speaker of the Assembly alongwith the MLAs have taken a decision to contribute 10 % of their Salary towards the fight against Corona Virus, which is commendable but this time around the fight is much more fierce and requires a lot of resources especially financially.
However, the fight this time is more fiercer and hence will involves a lot of expenditure. Therefore, the State Government should take a call to cut down salaries of Ministers, MLAs and Beauracrats by 30 % for this Financial year towards a special fund for fighting Covid-19 in the State.
The MLA Scheme for the year 2021-2022 should be deducted by 50 % and this money may be used towards setting up of Community Quarantine Centres, buying ventilators and Covid Vaccines, keep a buffer stock of Oxygen Cylinders, activate and equipped the PHCs, CHCs and District Hospitals in the State towards the fight against the Disease.
