File picture of Himanta Biswa Sarma and the then Congress MLA Gautam Bora during a visit to the FRU in 2005

Dhing, June 6: It is one bright spot in the dismal healthcare scenario.

The First Referral Unit (FRU) at Dhing, in Nagaon district, conducted a record number of critical surgeries during the past three years, prompting the European Commission to very recently acknowledge it as the ?most successful rural health institution? in the Northeast.

Statistics compiled by the health department mention 1,625 operations, including management of uterine rupture, obstructive jaundice and hysterectomy.

?Seven years ago, critical surgery in the Nagaon Civil Hospital was unheard of. But all this became possible in Dhing after the community health centre was upgraded to a First Referral Unit (FRU),? Nagaon joint director of health services, U.R. Bhattachayee, said.

A. Baishya, the European Commission?s facilitator in Assam, said a few things still needed to be done to turn the Dhing FRU into a self-sufficient institution. ?However, at this moment we can call it a model FRU,? he said.

Apart from villagers from Dhing, patients from the interior areas of Morigaon and Nagaon regularly come to the FRU for treatment. A major operation almost free of cost is a great relief for the people of these flood-prone areas, deputy superintendent of the FRU, Golap Dutta, said.

?A two-storeyed building inside the FRU is under construction with Rs 28 lakh as grants-in-aid under the Rashtriya Sama Vikash Yojana. An operation theatre will take up the entire 1,800-square feet first floor while the post-operative wing will be housed on the ground floor. We expect that better facilities in the new building will attract more patients in the days to come,? Rajani Thakuria, a senior doctor at the Dhing FRU, said.

Last month, Mahmuda Begum, a woman in her mid-twenties from Moirabari, was admitted to the FRU in a critical condition. She was advised to undergo treatment in a private nursing home but Mahmuda?s family opted for the FRU and an emergency surgery saved her life.

?My relatives thought I would not survive. It was hardly possible for them to bring me to Nagaon town, which is 50 km from Moirabari,? Mahmuda recalled. ?Ours is an underdeveloped area but the FRU gives us hope,? Munmi Borua of Dhing Athgaon said.

Altogether six community health centres in Jakhalabandha, Dhing, Kampur, Hojai, Lumding and Kawaimari were upgraded to First Referral Units during the past three years with grants-in aid from the European Commission.

Nagaon was the first district in the Northeast to receive grants-in-aid from the commission in 1998. In 2004, six new districts ? Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup (urban), Sonitpur, Nalbari and Cachar ? received the first phase of the grant from the commission.

?The basic objective behind the establishment of the FRU is to reduce infant as well as maternal mortality rate,? Nagaon coordinator Apurba Kumar Sarma said.