It is really unfortunate that despite nearly four years after the Article 370 watered down, that central government and LG Manoj Sinha held lone factor responsible for under development of erstwhile State of J&K, the situation of healthcare sector in the Union Territory is still dwindling because most of the healthcare facilities in the region are only good at referring their patients to other hospitals, mostly out of state. In the aforesaid sector, although the J&K administration never gets tired of boasting and self-praising as if J&K is offering state of art medical facilities to all its citizens but to know about the ground realities, a visit to the tertiary hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar and the frequent sorties of Ambulances making to and fro trips to nearby states are enough to gauge the situation.
Often healthcare institutions object the trend of people moving out with their patients to other states and UTs in north India for treatment but these institutions never utter a word about the condition of hospitals and other medical facilities in the UT as patients with common diseases often find them in trouble due to negligence of medicos, dysfunctional diagnostic machines, medical accessories and poor prevailing conditions with no check on rules to be mandatorily observed by the stakeholders.
An examination of the healthcare infrastructure reveals a lack of reliable medical facilities at the district level, which undermines the confidence of local residents and exacerbates the burden on Medical College Hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar. It is distressing to observe that individuals from rural and remote regions are disproportionately affected by the inadequacy of the healthcare system and face limited access to basic medical services. As a result, patients and their families are often forced to either endure illness without proper support or seek assistance from private healthcare providers in capital cities and in neighbouring states or union territories.
According to sources, there are approximately 6000 positions for doctors and paramedic staff that remain unfilled in the Union Territory, resulting in a significant shortage of medical services available to the public. Hospitals like GMC Jammu, GMC Srinagar, the new GMCs opened in other districts, SKIMS Soura, and Super Speciality Hospital Jammu, are amongst the limited medical facilities providing vital healthcare services to the citizens. The aforesaid government-run-hospitals cater to the population of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory which is nearly 1.36 crore with an annual healthcare Budget of Rs 2097 Cr.
With such a mêlée between the local healthcare facilities and the hospitals outside the UT, for sure the triumphant are outsiders and that is the reason ambulances can be seen ferrying patients outside the UT day and night. J&K offering state of medical care to people seems to be a distant dream because the entities responsible for bringing such a change have already started taking credit for a thing which is still far short of optimum or non-existent. There are several occasions when the LG Administration has patted its back after claiming that J&K has got all necessary healthcare edifices due to their efforts but the reality is contrary with the ordeal of patients of
