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| Need for merging medical education with health services | | | To be wise after events. It is an old idiom which does not compliment those who learnt a lesson or two from the mistakes they may have committed earlier. Still even if some learnt a lesson or two late in their lives or late in the day still it is worth appreciation. But for the National Conference led Government in Jammu and Kashmir all the doors for improvement stand shut. For it all the channels for learning a lesson or two from mistakes are closed. During the last over six months the state has witnessed highly uneasy moments over the high incidence of infant mortality in the hospitals. The uproar was so high that the Government had to order a probe after changing the superintendent in G. B. Pant hospital in Srinagar where about 500 infants died during the period of about five months. Even in Jammu 2400 infants have died in three years but the Government neither ordered a probe nor initiated measures to ensure that such incidents were never repeated. First of all the Government should have gone in for a crash programme for recruiting doctors, nurses and paramedics to narrow down the gap between the patient-doctor ratio. Nothing was done and inst ead the shortage of doctors and paramedics continued thereby paralysing health services.
As hospitals in J&K continue to face dearth of specialized doctors during the last several years, the state's Health and Medical Education Department seems to be unconcerned on the appointment of A grade specialist doctors, rendering the health institutions short of experienced staff. Even after the department has come in the line of criticism for over 500 neonate deaths at the Valley's lone children hospital, G B Pant hospital, this year, official documents paint a grim picture of healthcare vis-à-vis availability of specialized doctors. The documents reveal that no A grade specialist in Pediatric and Gynecology is available in J&K hospitals. "There are only 37 A-grade specialists working in JK hospitals after these posts were created by the Health and Medical Education Department. That is the only strength of A-grade medicos we have so far," the documents read. In the Kashmir Valley, out of 37 A-grade specialists, 22 are working in twin specialities of Surgery and Medicine. In Jammu the number is even less with just 15 A-grade specialists posted in the hospitals. These specialists were appointed in six branches including ENT, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Pathology, Radiology and Dentistry. Official figures suggest that about 532 B-grade specialists are working in JK hospital, run by the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir and Jammu.
What is disturbing the fact that more than 16 senior doctors managed to secure lucrative jobs in countries outside India leaving various faculties quite orphan. Apart from the inconvenience being suffered by people and patients who need treatment from specialists within the state a large number of patients are forced to secure advanced medicare and treatment in big hospitals, medical colleges and top nursing homes in areas outside Jammu and Kashmir. This has completely upset the calculation and dream of the successive state Governments which had invested a major portion of the state's plan and non-plan outlays on health sector. As a result of shortage of senior doctors and paramedics highly sophisticated equipments and apparatus in various faculties in two medical colleges face rust after those who could and needed to handle them had left for greener pastures. Equally disturbing is the growing threat of de-recognition of some faculties in the two medical colleges only for violating the norms fixed for number of A-grade and B-grade specialists in each department. Is the mess in the health sector the result of conflict between the Health Minister and the Minister for Medical Education ? Let the Government merge the two so that all the activities in the entire health sector remained under the eye of one Minister.
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