Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister on June 26 sought the intervention of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda into the ongoing protest by resident doctors of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS).

The resident doctors of NEIGRIHMS Cardiology department were on strike for the last one week in protest against the alleged arbitrary use of administrative powers by Director D.M. Thappa to accept their examination fees for the doctorate of medicine (cardiology) course and for onward submission to the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU)

"Resident doctors of NEIGRIHMS have been on strike for the last one week and this has affected the smooth functioning of the hospital and the patients," Hek said in his letter to Nadda. "The grievance of the doctors, as I could understand, is the alleged harassment in the university examination of students and victimization of doctors by the Director, NEIGRIHMS," he added

He noted that the NEIGRIHMS director has been away from the institute for the last 10 days "despite being aware of the situation". Hek said that patients who were coming from far flung areas of hilly terrain of the region are stranded in Meghalaya and are approaching him for help. "There have been reports in the media that that the Resident Doctors strike may intensify if their grievances are not addressed by the administration of NEIGRIHMS," said Hek, urging Nadda to personally intervene into the matter and solve this issue at the earliest in the larger interest of the institute and patients.

The North East Health Ministers had recently raised the issue of de-recognition of the Post Graduate course at NEIGRIHMS with Nadda and sought his personal intervention. The NEIGRIHMS has been designed on the lines of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh. The hospital was built at an estimated cost of Rs 420 crore and has a 30-bed Intensive Care Unit and 35 specialty and super specialty departments.