Healthcare needs a revamp
The state of healthcare in Kashmir Valley is a cause for concern among us all. Every other day we get to hear about the cases of medical negligence’s and other issues. All these incidents get us to start issuing condemnation statement, and rightly so.
But while we offer our condemnation and mock at the system that has been put in place, no one among us bothers to see through the rotten healthcare system that has been set up to take care of the ever increasing healthcare needs of the people here.
Talking about the maternity healthcare facilities alone in the state, we only have one maternity care hospital in Kashmir region that is catering to the enormous needs of the population from all the districts of the Valley.
No wonder than that every now and then we hear about cases of medical negligence emerging from this very hospital. The hospital is so over burdened that a resident doctor has to perform his or her job for 36 hours at a stretch. And what is worrying is that the other alternatives that were ever created in other parts of the City have been left ‘safe heavens’ for the kiths and kin of the mighty and the powerful.
We will discuss various such options here which could have otherwise provided a breather for the LD hospital. The maternity care at SKIMS and Sanat Nagar have been left in such conditions that no attention is being diverted to get the medicos and the staff here to contribute their bit.
These places have been left as resting spots for the influential medicos who seek posting to such places to enjoy their private practice and seek refuge from the responsibility that they otherwise need to share as being part of the government machinery.
The case of Sanat Nagar maternity hospital is worse as the hospital closes its doors for the patients just in the afternoon despite being provided with almost all the emergency care facilities. Similarly other city hospitals like JLNM too have been ignored as far as maternity care is concerned. These hospitals could have immensely contributed to lessen the burden on LD and provided an alternate to the patients.
The second important aspect that one tends to ignore is that why cannot be the healthcare facilities at the peripheries be expanded and professionalized to an extent that such kind of incidents do not occur in future.
What is shameful is that the entire administration, the policy makers and the rulers have not bothered to develop the required infrastructure that could have provided answers to our growing medical needs?
For an example a PHC was created in Chadoora with 15 residential quarters for the medicos by a former minister. But can the former minister be questioned that have those 15 residential quarters ever been utilized by anyone. Couldn’t the money that was handed over to a blue eyed contractor for constructing those isolated quarters have been used to develop an operation theater that could have been run 24×7.
As if this was not enough another PHC is being constructed in Charar-i-Shareef with the same 15 residential quarters being put in place. How shameful……
KV Network
