Unavailability of neurosurgery department in Silchar Medical College is causing many unfortunate deaths: Dr. SK Nandi Purkayastha

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A doctor is one who always needs to perform a miracle everyday to get an ailing one back on feet. One such miracle man is Sujit Kumar Nandi Purkayastha. Popularly known as Nandi Purkayastha, the orthopedic surgeon firmly believes the old saying, “Service to mankind is service to joy.” Throughout his career he has performed his duties with utmost dedication, his simplicity is his sophistication and his patients have forever been his priority.

Dr. Nandi Purkayastha had an illustrious academic career, after completing his MBBS from Guahati Medical College and Hospital in 1965 he joined Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences as a post-graduate trainee under renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Prakash Chandra and obtained the Master of Surgery Degree in 1969 in his very first attempt. He then returned to Assam and joined Silchar Medical College and Hospital, SMCH, as a Registrar in 1970. He played a pivotal role in setting up Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1973. He was later elevated as Head of Department, Orthopaedics in 1987 and worked there till his retirement.

 Purkayastha immensely contributed to the growth of SMCH as an administrator, he was appointed as the Vice-Principal cum additional chief superintendent of SMCH in 1996. A year later in 1997 he became the Principal cum chief superintendent, it was in his tenure, Cobalt Therapy Unit, Administrative & Library building, Blood Bank were established.

As an orthopedic surgeon he has straightened many bends and joined many cracks, but the experienced doctor admits that like all human beings, human errors are parts of doctor’s life too. In an exclusive interview with Barakbulletin.com, the veteran doctor admits that there are severe loopholes in the medical facilities available at SMCH’s disposal. He feels it is extremely important to setup specialists departments in order to restrict untimely deaths.

Here are the edited excerpts:

Silchar Medical College and Hospital is celebrating its Golden Jubilee, as an education institution how will you rate SMC’s development?

 I think it has developed a lot over the years, today the infrastructure has improved leaps and bounds, the institution has appointed quality faculties, so many new departments have been setup… Having said so, superspeciality departments are the need of the hour and we need to start them as soon as possible. There was one cardiology professor in SMC and he is on leave and hence the department is in no man’s land, so we need more specialists and superspeciality departments.

 And what is your take on the Hospital’s development?  

There we have some issues, we did not setup any new departments, what we had earlier, and we still have the same. So, we need to start new departments immediately, in fact I think we should have started departments like neurosurgery, neurology, urology, urosurgery, endocrinology 15-20 years ago. Remember SMCH’s patients are not limited to Barak Valley or Assam; patients come from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya with expectation of better quality treatment. Since we do not have neurosurgeons we are not able to provide adequate treatment to patients suffering from brain hemorrhage, as a result of which we are often unable to save them, which is very sad.

Is this why people are losing their trust on SMCH and regularly opting Private Nursing Homes when it comes to medical treatment?

Well, I don’t see any reason why people should withdraw their faith from SMCH; the departments, which are there, are functioning well and serving patients with sophistication. We need to understand the population is always on the rise and subsequently number of patients, and because of that SMCH today is not able to meet each and every expectation. We need to setup the departments we lack but the ones we have, there is no reason why we should not trust them.

But then doctor what defines the existence of so many private nursing homes in Barak Valley…

I won’t blame Hospital (SMCH) for that; people today are pre-determined about getting treated in Nursing Homes. Also, I must say I have seen many rackets in Silchar, that works hard to brainwash patients coming from outside and get them admitted to Nursing Homes and in return, they get commission. The racket at the same time establishes a negative impression about SMCH. They tell patient’s attendants, “Don’t go to SMCH, you won’t get doctors, it will take too long etc.”

Today, we see a lot of patients going out of Barak Valley to Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi etc. for treatment, what do you think is the reason behind it? 

There are many trends that we come across in daily life, people going out of station for treatment is one such trend. It’s not only Barak Valley, people of Delhi are going out, people of Chennai are going out, so it’s there everywhere. This is a mentality, that, I will get better treatment if I get myself cured in a bigger place. It is not always necessary that a bigger place will provide you better treatment. And after all, yes there is a section of people, who want certain facilities, or treatments which SMCH cannot provide and hence they go out of station.

So, you think all our doctors are adequate, quality professionals?

Won’t say all are quality professional, but we do have quality doctors too…

But then we often read in newspapers about cases of irregularities and erroneous treatment…

I don’t buy this criticism… Every human being is prone to errors, there is always a slight chance of human error, and it’s there everywhere. In Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or London, everywhere you will come across one odd such cases of irregularities in diagnostics or treatment, but these are rare cases, there and in SMCH too. I would also like to mention here, the publications today are impulsive, and they do not dig deep enough to know the complete truth, so the published article need not be correct, always.

Okay… there are more allegations… doctors today have made private practice as a business, while doctors are supposed to devote themselves in service and not business…

Well, I partly agree to the allegation and at the same time beg to differ as well. We need to understand that Silchar is very small (area) as a city, and we have a complete mismatch when it comes to ratio of doctors and patients, so we always have more patients to attend. Now take my example, at this age, I must not attend more than 15 patients, but I always happen to have more patients waiting outdoors. Now, if I don’t attend them, you will say I am ignoring my patients and therefore not doing my service and if I attend them you will say I am doing business. In a place like Silchar, the social obligations are huge, so putting a limit to number of patients is extremely difficult. Having said all of that, whenever business is associated with a doctor’s profession, it is a big insult for the doctor and the profession both, and in some cases the association is justified too.

Nursing Homes today get outstation doctors to treat patients, can SMCH also do something similar, also does SMCH have the infrastructure for an outstation doctor to come and operate a patient?  

As per my knowledge, the departments we lack specialists have not made any arrangement yet for doctors from other medical colleges and hospitals to attend patients. And out-station doctors do operate patients (existing departments) in SMCH.

Another thing, I would like to mention here, the equipments in SMCH are far more sophisticated than any nursing homes in Barak Valley.

We read a lot about cases of Knee Replacement in national newspapers and magazines, do we have the facility in Silchar and what is the success rate?

We do perform knee replacement surgeries regularly in Barak Valley and if it is done with precision, we can attain a 100 per cent success rate.

To end with, what is your suggestion to avoid calcium deficiencies and live a healthy lifestyle?

First thing that one needs to maintain is a balanced diet, and then one needs to exercise regularly. But the most important aspect to avoid calcium deficiencies is Vitamin D, one must spend at least 30 minutes under sun daily, Vitamin D deficiencies can give rise to many other problems. Swimming is a very good exercise but as we do not have facilities in Barak Valley, we must go outdoor for morning walks. Also, knee joints are very critical and these days we come across a lot of patients suffering with knee related issues. One must keep control of their body weights to avoid knee related issues.