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| Omar must surrender award for JK's health | | India Today Conclave Award | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 4: Just weeks after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report painted a dismal picture of the health sector in Jammu Kashmir, the Chief Minister received best health care service award from India Today conclave.
The Chief Minister at times shows prudence. Only yesterday he surrendered two gas connections which were duly registered in his name.
He won appreciation for the noble gesture. The `prudent' Chief Minister must surrender the award given by India Today Conclave for a variety of reasons.
The CAG report has made a detailed mention of staff crunch in the hospitals forcing around two million people every year to go outside the state for treatment of various ailments.
As per media reports more than 800 infants have died in the hospital during the recent past. Various reasons including lack of staff and infrastructure have been assigned for the deaths. The government constituted an enquiry and sacked the former superintendent.
Official documents expose the tall claims of the government viz-a-viz health care in Kashmir's only tertiary care hospital, SKIMS. The documents show that 3400 deaths have occurred in the Valley's lone super specialty hospital from January 2011 to July 31, 2012.
The neurosurgery department, documents reveal heads the list with 714 deaths. It is followed by neurology with 626 deaths and urology department with 602 deaths.
According to CAG report there is acute shortage of drugs in the hospital. Even normal saline (glucose) is not available in the super specialty hospital. The patients have to purchase it from the market. Curiously the Institute purchases drugs worth crores of rupees every year but the patients have to rush to the market for most of the medicines, a senior doctor said.
The mortality rate attracted the attention of Speaker, Mohammad Akber Lone. He has constituted a committee of the members of the House to investigate the alarming death rate. The committee has not submitted its report.
The hospital even compromises on the quality of oxygen. Sources said that the Oxygen Plant has stopped working properly which has affected the purity of oxygen. "The concerned engineer had informed the Director SKIMS bringing into his notice the mal-functioning of the Oxygen Plant. However, the Director ignored him and thus compromised on the purity of oxygen," they said.
The report was submitted to the authorities by the concerned engineer on July 3 about the "low purity of newly-installed oxygen concentrator plant", describing the matter as "most urgent."
The report reveals the plant was functioning satisfactorily up to June 25, 2012 after which the "purity of the plant started decreasing." As against the standard purity of 95 plus minus 1 percent, the purity of the plant "is continuously showing a decreasing trend and is presently fluctuating between 72 to 77 per cent", the report says.
There is no denying the fact that dispensaries and primary health centers have come out across the state but unless proper infrastructure and staff are made available, no purpose can be served.
The Chief Minister must, therefore, surrender the award and instead project the real picture of ailing health care in the state.
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