Jammu, Dec 2: Despite being ranked number one in primary and secondary healthcare, Jammu and Kashmir is facing shortage of 199 Primary Health Centres and 63 Community Health Centres.
 Sources informed Greater Kashmir that against a total requirement of 4747 health institutions, including district hospitals, Community Health Centers (CHC)s, Primary Health Centers (PHC)s, Health Sub-Centers (HSC)s the state has only 2990, thus being short of 1757 institutions at various levels.
 “Against the necessity of 23 District Hospitals (DH)s, the state has only 20 DHs available as three out of six newly carved out districts still don’t have the district level hospital even after 6 years of their creation” sources said.
 They added that even in newly created district, where the District Hospitals have been established, the situation is worse than the Sub District Hospital.
 District Hospital Poonch runs from a makeshift accommodation, while District Hospital Kishtwar is facing shortage of more than 50 per cent doctors. The situation, they said, is almost similar in Kashmir.
 The official records reveal that against the requirement of 150 Community Health Centers (CHCs) in various parts of the state, the state presently has only 87 CHCs, amounting to a deficiency of 63.
 “Most of the far flung and hilly areas, despite having pressing need, lack CHCs and the government has no programme to meet this deficiency in near future,” sources said.
 They said that as per norms of health department, the state should have 608 Primary Health Centers (PHC)s -considered most important health service units in rural areas, but presently there are only 409, indicating that about 199 habitations which need a PHC lack the same. .
 With regard to the availability of Health Sub Centers (HSC)s there is a huge gap in requirement and availability, sources said, adding that against the requirement of 3966 HSCs, the state health department has only 2474, with a vast deficiency of 1492. 
 Sources attribute the huge shortage in some areas to the arbitrary sanctioning of health institutions in some districts of the state.
 “The areas which are represented by the ruling parties for a pretty long time get maximum share when it comes to the sanctioning of the health institutions. There are areas which have remained neglected for decades now only because of poor representation in the government” sources said.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 2 Dec 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 2 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 3 Dec 2012 00:00:00 IST