DIMAPUR —  Ao Senden has rejected the Health and Family Welfare department’s reply to its demands concerning Dr. Imkongliba Memorial District Hospital (IMDH), Mokokchung, and set October 31 as a fresh deadline for compliance, warning of intensified agitation if the demands remain unmet.

In a letter to the department’s principal director on Friday, the apex Ao body reiterated that it would accept nothing short of a radiologist at IMDH. It questioned why the department had directed the hospital to release a senior radiologist but had not issued a similar order for the radiologist posted at District Hospital Phek to be transferred to Mokokchung.

Ao Senden also demanded that doctors and nurses attached to other establishments be returned to IMDH and that services be shifted to the hospital’s new Block A.

The organisation stated that the department’s inaction had left it prepared to intensify its agitation if the demands were not met by October 31.

The fresh ultimatum comes two days after Ao Senden, along with Ao Lanur Telongjen and the Ao Kaketshir Mungdang, began an indefinite shutdown of the chief medical officer’s office in Mokokchung over the hospital’s staffing and infrastructure.

The department had earlier responded that instructions had been issued to shift services to Block A, tentatively by November 15. It had also stated that a psychiatrist attached to Dimapur District Hospital would return to IMDH from November 1.

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