news details |
|
|
| Healthcare in J&K’s rural belt in shambles | | Staff shortage, poor infrastructure puncture tall claims | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 6: The rural health amidst the prevalent pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir continues to remain in shambles with least efforts being put in to correct the wrongs.
At present, the lack of infrastructure in the countryside of the erstwhile state is acting as a major stumbling block in the fight against COVID-19. As per the reports coming to the fore, the lack of basic infrastructure and staff in rural hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir is affecting the quality healthcare with even district-level hospitals lacking the basic equipment and staff to deal with the prevalent pandemic. There are hospitals that lack blood banks while there are scores of them who have been missing completion deadlines for years all together. There are even the hospital sites that were sanctioned by the past regimes but are limited to the papers only due to the scarcity of funds.
Sources within the dispensation divulge that even when the Central Government has kept the funds available to upgrade of existing health infrastructure, little efforts are being put to utilize the funds and make best use of the resources. “The fact is that the government is doing little to crack the whip against the medicos who are minting money from the poor patients through private practices and leaving the hospitals run by the government in absolute disarray. The irony is that even the government is not cracking the whip against such nefarious elements at all,” said, an official.
There are also reports coming to the fore that the hospitals in rural areas are run with less staff as medicos posted in these places usually stay away from work.
Majority of the hospitals in rural parts are deficient both in the strength of the medicos and the paramedical staff.
Even when the government is making tall claims about ensuring better health care facilities in the erstwhile state, the situation on ground is bellying its claims.
Early Times has already reported in detail that how after the outbreak of swine flu in Jammu during 2014-15, the Principal, Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu forwarded in February 2015 a detailed proposal for the creation of a separate isolation ward and a swine flu H1N1 laboratory for molecular diagnosis of swine flu and other epidemics, at an estimated cost of Rs 6.28 crore- Creation of separate isolation ward: Rs 2.98 crore; Creation of Swine flu H1N1 laboratory: Rs 3.30 crore- to the Commissioner Secretary, Health and Medical Education department. The Government approved in March 2015 the proposal and released Rs 6.30 crore under State plan with the condition to fulfill all codal formalities required under rules and ensure establishment of the laboratory within the shortest possible time.
There were reports that the injudicious action to withdraw funds from the treasury just to avoid their lapsing at the close of the financial year and the failure to utilize these funds during the last 3½ years, resulted in the parking of Rs 3.45 crore which includes an unspent balance of Rs 0.15 crore lying with the Executive Engineer in the deposit head, cost escalation and the intended objective of setting up of Swine flu testing laboratory could also not be achieved. It was also reported that three patients had died of swine flu during 2017-18 in GMC Jammu. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
