“638 deaths at RIMS OPD between Apr 2011-Mar 2012”

IMPHAL, October 21: The Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, RIMS was inaugurated on September 14, 1972 under the name Regional Medical College, Imphal. The Medical Institute was run by a society before the Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI took over in September 1976.

Till 1976 it was run under a society and by September 1976, it came under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. In September 2001, the management of the medical institute was handed over to the Ministry of DoNER in 2001 after it was handled by NEC for some time. Lastly, it was handed over to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GOI on April 1, 2007.

Since, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare took control of the Institute in 2007, there has been several claims regarding steps and effort to upgrade it to the level of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

However, one of the institute’s biggest departments out of its 27 departments, Medicine Department has seen 638 deaths during April 2011 and March 2012 which unfortunately points to the inadequacy of the RIMS authority in its quest to bring the institute to the level of AIMS and unfortunate for the patients treating in the institute.

According to the annual report of the institute pertaining to the period from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012, the Medicine department has 26 doctors, one Head Doctor, four Professors, nine Associate Professors, four Assistant Professors and eight Registrars.

It is also one of the departments with the highest numbers of doctors. Not just this but the post graduate students assist the doctors in providing their patient care service as part of their internship.

According to the annual report, there were 638 deaths in the department during April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012. During the same period, altogether 77776 patients were admitted to its Out Patient Department including 48,361 male and 29415 females.

Out of the total patients, 5013 male and another 2801 female patients were admitted into the department’s ward. It is also learnt that all 638 casualties were from those admitted to the ward.

The OPD admits (approx) 279 patients on a daily basis with an 89 percent bed occupancy rate. The authorities should look into the high number of death rate in the department and try to bring it down .

Meanwhile, it may be mentioned that with just 2 doctors, the Blood Transfusion dept has lowest number of doctors amongst the departments.