On path of progress: Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. Telegraph picture

First success very sweet

IGIMS has finally got the permission to start admissions in the MBBS course. How big an achievement is it for you?

Our team at IGIMS is very happy and excited that our efforts have paid off and we have got clearance from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start the medical college. The idea to set up a full-fledged medical college with 100 MBBS seats was first floated in 2007. The MCI inspected the institution twice this year after we applied for permission. Finally, on June 30, we got the nod from the council. The real challenge in the journey begins now.

What about the faculty at the college?

There was shortage of required faculty for basic subjects like biochemistry, anatomy and physiology. We have been trying to recruit qualified teachers. Out of seven faculty members that we were falling short of, four have been appointed and efforts are on to fill up the rest of the posts. Betterment of manpower and infrastructure is an ongoing process and we will keep trying to get better to meet the MCI norms.

Under-fed baby of state

When IGIMS was established in 1984, it was touted as Bihar’s answer to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. However, it has remained a poor shadow of country’s topmost government-run health institution. What went wrong and why?

IGIMS was established with a view to provide super-speciality health services to the people. The idea was to develop the centre in phases and to have a fully equipped centre within five to six years. A detailed plan was prepared and the government was supposed to release funds for phase-wise development of the hospital over a period of time. However, the plan mostly remained on paper and the money was not given in required order and in sufficient amount. The time-frame was not followed nor any serious effort made to put the right infrastructure in place. Required numbers of posts were also not created. Soon, as the hype around the widely publicised project deflated, the experts who had joined the institution realised the government was not interested in the project and they left.

It was a baby of the state government but they failed to feed it properly. The repercussions of all those years have continued till now. No steps were taken to strengthen departments like renal sciences, gastro sciences, neurosciences and regional centres for cancer and ophthalmology, which were the super-speciality wings of the institution. A phase came when not a single penny was given to IGIMS by the state government for years and it merely survived on the revenue earned by charging services to the patients. While it was envisaged that IGIMS will be an autonomous institution, it was made completely dependent on government and grossly neglected. From that phase, IGIMS has come a long way today and has done well for itself.

What hurdles did IGIMS face in its journey to become a national-level health institution?

I must say that things have improved in the past five years. The present NDA government seems to be serious to better the scenario here. For the first time in the history of IGIMS, we have got an annual budgetary grant of Rs 60 crore this year under plan and non-plan heads. However, it is still way too less than required.

It sometimes seems the health department considers IGIMS as a stepchild and has an attitude of hopelessness towards it. I want to humbly request to the people sitting at the helm of affairs that please have faith in the institution. We have potential and willingness to grow as a quality centre of health care and we need your assistance. But for that we need special attention. IGIMS is lost as a tiny island in the ocean of health department. If the system envisaged at the time of the hospital’s inception is followed even now, things will improve.

Expansion on cards

What are new proposals on cards for IGIMS?

A Rs 500-crore project which envisages a 500-bed hospital and medical college on the IGIMS premises has been waiting for the government sanction and it is crucial now that the authorities approve it so-on. In months to come, we will start a 24x7 trauma centre in here. Ten new operation theatres are being constructed, two of which would be modular OTs. It will enable us to perform more sophisticated surgeries with better facilities. Also, equipment and machines are being procured for various departments.

Do you think you have been able to achieve your goals as the IGIMS director in the past three years?

I consider myself as a team lea-der and whatever we have achieved in the last three years has been a collective effort. What I consider as a source of personal satisfaction is that I have been able to motivate pe-ople working here. When I first joi-ned as director, IGIMS, even the doctors had lost faith in the system and thought the institute could not deliver quality services. Today, we are on a path of progress. Even tho-ugh we provide paid services, people are queuing up to get treatment here. Our revenue has increased to Rs 10 crore this year and its only because of the commitment shown by our team. The government should also have that kind of belief in us. My message to them is — don’t write us off, help us get better.

Connected to the roots

About Dr Arun Kumar...

I was born in a middle-class farmer family on September 9, 1950 in a village in Begusarai district. I was the first graduate in my family. I got admission into Patna Medical College and Hospital, which was known as Prince of Wales Medical College at that time, after I stood third in the Intermediate examination in Bhagalpur University. I finished my MBBS in 1975 and then did PG in anaesthesiology and critical care from there. Later, I was appointed government doctor in tea-ching cadre. I served in various me-dical colleges before taking voluntary retirement scheme to join IGIMS as professor in anaesthesiology department. In 2008, I was ma-de the director of the institution.

What would have you been had you not been a doctor?

I always had interest in farming as I belong to a family of agriculturist. In fact, once in school, I took gardening as hobby even as most of my batch mates preferred music or other forms of art. For sure, I would have become a farmer had I not been a doctor.

Special status demand

What are your expectations from the government?

As I said earlier, we want to be put in a special bracket. We want this institution to grow. Few super-speciality degrees are already being provided here and few more will start soon, so we need to give local autonomy to the institution. There should be serious and pragmatic assessment of our needs. I suggest that a committee of four to five members be formed, comprising people who have experience of running an institution of this magnitude. Also some administrative officials from here should be a part of that committee and its recommendations should be seriously followed within a time-frame. I want special status for IGIMS just like Bihar government is seeking special status from the Centre. The needs have to be identified and then pursued. If money is an issue, even PPP model can be explored. But things have to get going.