Jammu and Kashmir administration has accorded sanction to the creation of 343 posts for the upcoming 500 bedded pediatric hospital at Bemina. The health department has notified qualification and recruitment method for these posts.
An order issued by Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, AtalDuloo said: “343 posts for different categories have been created for 500 bedded pediatric hospital (Government Medical College, Srinagar) at Bemina, Srinagar.”
The administration has stated that the pediatric hospital will be made operational by the end of this year. It may be mentioned that the completion of the hospital building has missed three deadlines in the past six years.
Earlier designated as ‘Mother and Childcare Institute’, it was declared to be established as a full-fledged pediatric hospital with 500 bed capacity in 2019.
The work on the hospital which was proposed to be a 200-bedded maternity care facility initially was started in 2013 during the National Conference (NC) regime. However, former Chief Minister, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on October 17, 2015, gave it an extension and laid the foundation stone for 500-bedded Mother-Child Hospital.
In 2019, the government accorded sanction to conversion of the 200-bedded Maternity Hospital and the 300 bedded Pediatric Hospital at Bemina, Srinagar into a full-fledged 500-bedded Children’s Hospital.
An official in the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department said that till now three deadlines for its completion —one in 2014, second in 2017 and third in 2018—had been missed.
It is pertinent to mention that the government enhanced the budgetary allocation for the health and medical education sector by Rs 500 crore to Rs 1268 crore in budget 2020-21.