Located in a campus (Naga Hospital Colony) measuring 12.70 acres above the NH 29, one of the oldest and premier healthcare institution in the state, the 117-year old Naga Hospital Au-thority Kohima (erstwhile Naga Hospital/ Civil Hospital Kohima) is the pride of Nagaland.
The NHAK has one of the best and well maintained 30-bed ICU/CCU, including 10-bed SNCU, which can match any reputed medical college in the country.
Encroachment: However, NHAK has been facing systematic encroachment over several decades when private buildings have come up near isolation wards and also from below the NH 29.
A number of shops and pharmacies that have been constructed above the NH 29 are facing the main hospital complex. There rows of over 70 shops, pharmacies and shops selling coffins including some kutcha houses which are now directly across the patients ward in the hospital premises. These also include several local food stalls set up across the highway.
Regrettably, the hospital does not have a boundary wall, which has made the job of encroach-ers easy.
Due to the construction of many shops adjacent to the hospital, parking of vehicles has be-come a problem even when ambulances on emergency, have to wait for traffic to clear before dropping patients to hospital. On enquiry, it was learnt negotiations were on between the Kohima district administration and the squatters.
It may also be mentioned that the isolation ward for Under Trial Prisoners (UTPs) under NHAK, lies in dilapidated state with cracked walls and sinking floors due to subsidence.
Security personnel on duty for Under Trial Prisoners (UTPs) share the toilet with patients from isolation wards and posing a serious health hazard to the security personnel on duty.
When Nagaland Post visited the ward meant for police on duty for UTPs, it was found that male security personnel had to share the same room having three beds, with their female police counterparts assigned duty for UTP female patients.
Also, a female UTP patient who is admitted for treatment had to share the same room having four beds with another UTP male patient and with an unhygienic toilet attached.
Facilities: NHAK was conferred autonomous status by the State government vide the Naga Hospital Authority Bill, 2003 with the aim of developing it into a centre of excellence for providing the best healthcare facility at an affordable rate to the people.
The healthcare institution will be used for academic purposes once the academic session starts at Kohima Medical College and for which construction works are in full swing.
NHAK currently has 300 beds and 22 different specialised disciplines, including super-specialised services. NHAK is the State’s only referral centre.
NHAK has a well-equipped laboratory providing services to patients 24×7 and the State Ref-erence Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology under NACO was considered as one of the best in the country. It has a fully developed Microbiology, Biochemistry, Radiology and Pathology and Blood Bank departments.
The state’s only Bio Safety Laboratory-3 for identifying infectious micro-organisms and vi-ruses. Dimapur and Tuensang have BSL-2 institutes all of which played critical roles during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21.
The hospital reached an important milestone when it received ISO 9001:2008 certification from Indian Register Quality System, becoming the first ever hospital in Nagaland to be certi-fied and registered, thereby setting a new benchmark in quality healthcare.
NHAK is today catering to patients not only from Nagaland and Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, but also from neighbouring countries like Myanmar and Nepal.
It also provides many tertiary-level healthcare services and has a well-established dialysis unit providing both peritoneal and haemodialysis, a full-fledged diabetology and hepatology clin-ic.
All routine surgeries, both minor and major, including laparoscopy, are regularly performed along with total hip joint and knee joint replacement surgeries, spinal surgery, micro-car sur-gery, Functional Endoscopy Sinus Surgery (FESS), head and neck surgeries.
History of NHAK
Spread over an area of 12.70 acre Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK) situated at Naga Hospital Colony along NH-29, has one of the best and well maintained 30-bed ICU/CCU, including 10-bed SNCU, that can match facilities available with reputed medical colleges in the country.
The hospital began as a 10-bedded dispensary established during 1905-06 when the then British government made a provision for basic health care at Kohima in the then Naga Hills.
In due course, the dispensary was upgraded to 60 beds and named the Kohima Civil Hospital lo-cated around the site where the present Union Baptist Church and Kohima College stand today.
However, during the Battle of Kohima from April to June 1944 the dispensary was badly damaged and was shifted to the Mission compound building below Kohima village on August 9, 1944. The number of beds at the new site was reduced to 50 due to shortage in funds and materials.
The last British deputy commissioner of Naga Hills, Sir Charles Pausey, who was in-charge of civil administration of the district and ruing the months when the Battle of Kohima raged, after inspect-ing the hospital wrote on December 13, 1944: “The Kohima Civil Hospital has now been established in the Mission Building where tarpaulins are used to cover riddled CI sheets. These Cl sheets should be plugged or replaced as soon as possible, and the tarpaulins handed back to Assam Relief Meas-ure.”
In January 1945, an additional 50 beds were set aside at the Assam Relief Military Hospital as “Naga Ward”, which did not cater to outdoor patients. At this point, the Viceroy of India conveyed the decision of the British Government of India to provide a new hospital in acknowledgement of the outstanding services the Nagas had rendered for the success of Allied forces in the Kohima Battle.
Construction of the hospital at its current location began in 1946 and undertaken by Harbanslal Malhotra Construction Company of Calcutta on land that was generously donated by “some elders of T Khel” of Kohima village.
In June 1949, the hospital was handed over to the provincial Government of Assam and in due course it was upgraded as Kohima Civil Hospital with 60 beds and christened “Naga Hospital” by the Government of India.
