It is not an overstatement. Most of the state run hospitals, primary health centers and dispensaries more particularly in the rural areas are in shambles. Running short of people, medicine and infrastructure, these hospitals cry for immediate healing touch. However, of late the government has decided   to cater to their needs.    The government’s decision to recruit four thousands doctors and paramedical personnel through various recruiting agencies is a good beginning. The assertions made by the Minister for Health and Medical Education, R.S. Chib on Tuesday at  the Government Medical College, Girls Hostel building  foundation laying ceremony that coalition government  was taking steps for building infrastructure, procurement of  necessary equipment and recruiting staff sounded good but what has become the hallmark of the administration has been working at snail’s pace. Most of the well meaning schemes and programs get defeated for the tardiness in the administration. In the year 2009 the state cabinet took many decisions and one of the important decisions was regularization of   doctors both allopathic and Indian Medicine who have been working for the past about eight years on ad hoc basis but even after months of the decision no orders for their regular appointments have so far been issued. So is true about the paramedical staff working either on ad hoc basis or against the migrant vacancies. Those who managed the affairs of the hospitals during most trying times after many employees from a particular community migrated are awaiting orders for regularization of their appointments to this day.  It is not only true about health sector but equally holds good for other departments also. Many projects started with great fanfare have been abandoned after the changes of governments. Now when the Health and Medical Education Department is planning to upgrade and build infrastructure for the hospitals  instead of starting number of projects at one and same time it needs to start only a few with a definite time frame. The new projects should be started only after completion of the earlier ones. Besides the infrastructure health minister needs to focus on both the quality and availability of medicine. Most of the hospitals and dispensaries have been suffering for availability of medicines and if the medicines are available they are substandard.  The purchase of medicines by the health services department whether allopathic or Indian System has been always questioned. The cupboards of the department are filled with reports about  purchase of spurious and substandard drugs from some favored pharmaceutical firms from outside the state. Some years back a big scam in the medical services was exposed but it was immediately shelved for the involvement of some influential senior officers. There is need to put an end to the purchase of substandard and spurious drugs.
The Health Minister was right in stating that the hospitals in Kashmir valley are overcrowded. Other than Medical Institute, no major government hospitals has been constructed in the city of Srinagar. The city that was confined to seven bridges is now covering about three to four hundred square kilometers, and with lots of migration from the rural areas during the past twenty years its population has increased by about three hundred percent. The Srinagar city needs many more hospitals. Of all the hospital the most crowded and unhygienic are the Lal Ded Memorial (LD) Hospital and the Children’s Hospital. True, after Chief Minister’s intervention there has been some improvement in overall cleanliness in the L.D. hospital but the condition of the Children’s Hospital continues to be pitiable. In keeping with the growing population there is need for constructing another women’s hospital with super specialties like Oncology department for dreadful diseases like breast and ovary cancers in the city of Srinagar. The government some time back converted an old building in the industrial complex, Sanant Nagar into a small maternity hospital but for lack of infrastructure and other facilities it failed to reduce the traffic to the LD hospital. Moreover, the condition of the children’s hospital in Srinagar is pathetic and it needs immediate attention. The state needs to take up the matter for setting up of another women’s hospital with the Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad for seeking assistance under centrally sponsored schemes.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 IST