After the Health department posted 109 newly appointed Medical Officers across Jammu and Kashmir state on Wednesday, the people of Rajouri district are irked that only one among the 109 MOs has been posted in the district, which already faces acute shortage of doctors.
An order for posting newly appointed Medical Officers (MOs) was issued on Wednesday by the Health and Medical Education department, Civil Secretariat Srinagar. In the order, only one MO, Dr Mohammad Jahangir, figuring at serial number 82, has been posted at New Type PHC Tata-Pani.
After the order was released, the locals termed it as a glaring example of step-motherly treatment with the border district. “The health sector across the district is already facing severe staff crunch and now the government has posted only one doctor, out of 109, which shows that they are not really interested in improving the health scenario in the district,” a local, Kamal Kishore Sharma, said.
Another local, Vinod Kumar from Teryath, said, “CHC Teryath, which caters to more than 20,000 people, has only one doctor. Doesn’t the government feel that we need more doctors here?”
“Health services are at an all time low in several vital health institutions of the district, including PHC Samote, PHC Budhal, CHC Darhal, PHC Gambhir Mughlan, PHC Moughla and PHC Chatyar and the shortage of doctors is the main reason it all. The seriousness of government to improve the health sector is clear from Wednesday’s order,” Mohammad Ilyas, a local, said.
He further said that in district hospital Rajouri, only one Medical Officer looks after all the wards and sections during the entire night. “There is severe shortage of MOs in the district hospital as well. As the most vital institution faces such acute shortage, one can only imagine the state of affairs across the district,” he added.
The people appealed to Governor N N Vohra to intervene in the matter and initiate concrete steps to improve the health sector in the district. They also castigated local legislators for failing to raise the genuine problem of staff shortage before higher quarters.