Shillong, Dec 18: Archbishop of Shillong, Fr. Victor Lyngdoh, on Friday inaugurated the St Joseph’s Academy of Nursing at Umtrew, Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya in the presence of former health minister AL Hek.
Hek, who is also the advisor of the nursing institution, said that there are no good nursing institutions in Ri-Bhoi and infact this is the first institution that has come up so far.

“It will immensely be beneficial not only for the people of Ri-Bhoi or the state but also for the entire NE states… They can come and study nursing here,” said Hek.

The institution will be able to accommodate 60 students each for GNM and BSC nursing. He also informed that for BSC nursing they are yet to get affiliation from NEHU and JNM which is affiliated with DHS (MI) and Meghalaya Nursing Council has been completed even with the admissions too.

“There are so many students who wanted admission but we couldn’t accommodate more than its capacity with limited seats,” he added.

On the query of how the idea to setup a nursing institution came up, Hek said that after serving as Health Minister for two terms he witnessed the shortage of nurses, health workers in the state and hence wanted to do something for the health sector.