Dr Subhash Khanna
Chief Medical Director and Chief Consultant, Swagat Super Specialty Surgical Institute (SSSSI), Guwahati, Assam

Well equipped state-of-the-art hospitals in different parts of the North East is the need of the hour, informs Dr Subhash Khanna, Chief Medical Director and Chief Consultant, Swagat Super Specialty Surgical Institute (SSSSI), Guwahati, Assam to Prathiba Raju from Elets News Network (ENN)

What steps should be taken to boost the health fraternity of the NE region?

The medical fraternity in the region has evolved a lot and many new hospitals have come up that are technically at par with the renowned hospitals of the country. The only reason the regional fraternity has not been able to perform has been the lack of good fully equipped state-of-the-art hospitals in different parts of the north east. Thus many doctors of the region have left as without a back up good hospital the doctors at times feel helpless and frustrated. There are various ways that health fraternity of the north east can get a boost in this world one important step is participation of corporate hospitals in a big way. North East has always been considered as below par with the rest of the country in terms of healthcare delivery, and much need to be done to change that mindset of the people.

What are the steps taken by the union ministry to boost the healthcare delivery in the NE region?

The union ministry has tried to improve the health delivery system in the North East region by establishing some medical colleges in Assam but even today majority of the states in the region not only lack medical colleges but even good government run hospitals. Most of the medical colleges are understaffed and are not able to provide the healthcare facilities as is expected from these institutes. The North East Regional Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences at Shillong has not been able to help the region the way it was expected to perform, simply because of its geographical location and communication problems. The schemes proposed under NRH needs proper implementation.

How will SSSSI enable quality healthcare in Guwahati and neighboring areas?

The recently launched SSSSI is in fact the first such specialised center of excellence in the entire NE region that aims to bring cutting edge technology and state of the art infrastructure to the region. The success of our first center Swagat Endolaparoscopic surgical Research institute prompted us to provide yet another center of excellence in the region. The institute has a round the clock centrally air conditioned environment for the safety. At Swagat, a patient would get specialist surgeons, intensivists and cardiologists under one roof, with a back up of expert accident and trauma team. Their experience and surgical expertise and high sophistication will be the backbone of our precision and care.

What is the specialisation of SSSSI?

At our institute our endeavor would be to enable world class technology driven surgeries reachable and accessible to the people of the region. We could successfully carry out over 15000 endo laparoscopic surgical procedures over a span of 15 years. Our new center primarily would be to be able to provide world class care to the gastrointestinal, bariatric, orthopaedic, neurological, urology, cancer and cardiac patients of the region. My endeavour would be to provide liver transplant surgeries and robotic surgeries in this region in near future.

How do you see the growth of healthcare domain in the NE region five years down the line?

In five years from now I believe we shall have a tremendous growth of medical industry particularly in the state of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. The way private hospitals are focusing in the region they would give tough competition to the local entrepreneurs to improve their infrastructure and facilities. Many more private hospitals would be added that would provide multiple healthcare facilities under one roof. With insurgency under control it is expected that there would be large investments from business houses in the healthcare facilities. I hope in the next five years we would be able to see various patient centric healthcare delivery systems that would be accessible, affordable and readily available.

Like

Dislike

Be a part of Elets Collaborative Initiatives. Join Us for Upcoming Events and explore business opportunities. Like us on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter , Instagram.