S TAHIR-UL HAQ
EARLY TIMES REPORT
SRINAGAR, Feb 18: With every now and then, the tall claims of government are falling like cards, whereas the common masses that don’t have any access to the corridors of power are compelled to go for private checkups as most of the rural health care centers are lacking some infrastructure and other facilities in various districts of J&K Union Territory.
Fayaz Ahmad from Baramulla district said that, the government has failed to provide the basic health facilities to the rural masses, as the main focus is being given to the cities and towns due to various reasons known to the concerned authorities.
The top politicians, bureaucrats, pol workers, and other top sections of our society are living or have migrated permanently to other high-tech cities and towns; whereas the poor masses have been left at the mercy of God, said Fayaz.
However, sources said that, fact of the matter is that the main source of health care is the government health centers that include PHCs and sub-centers, and similarly people expect that government may have kept ready the same kind of facilities for the general public, but the case is totally different as nobody cares for them, said sources.
During winters, people prefer to visit to the nearby hospitals, but unfortunately the public health care system in rural areas is in shambles and nobody bothers about the patients in rural areas, sources aggrieved.
They said that there is an extreme inequality and disparities persist in terms of access to health care. This large disparity across the district of Jammu and Kashmir places the burden on the poor, especially women, children and disabled persons who cannot walk for kilometers by foot to reach to the sub district hospital.
“Many serious patients either choose to visit to the city hospitals or gets themselves registered in the private hospitals, as the patients don’t want to remain admit only when the concerned hospital is lacking of basic facilities”, sources observed.
If sources are to be believed they said that the availability of government doctors and paramedical staff in rural health institutions is very much regressive. There is an acute manpower shortage in the health institutions across J&K, which needs to be addresses at the earliest.
Some of the para-medical staff doesn’t bother to visit the PHCs, NTPHCs and SDH in times, and prefer to stay at their homes due to harsh winters, due to which the patients also prefer to visit to the private hospitals for better treatments.
The quality of government services in the rural areas has deteriorated to a great extent making these health centers dysfunctional due to lack of medicines and medical staff that needs to be addressed well in time so that people will not suffer at large, sources informed Early Times.
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