The Government in place in J&K under the leadership of CM Omar Abdullah seems to be more interested in sensationalizing routine work as from the day one, its ministers have been hogging the headlines of the papers with claims that they have held surprise visits to the healthcare institutions in various regions of the Union Territory to improve the functioning and bring about efficacy.
It is really surprising that how the work in the aforesaid healthcare institutions will improve with such on the spot inspections meant to ‘terrorize’ the staff, as if they are not medicos but the cheats. This approach is startling as it is more inclined to show off that the government is taking extraordinary steps to streamline the healthcare sector.
Going by this approach of the government as reported the Chief Medical Officer Poonch has conducted surprise visits of Block Surankote and Mendhar, similarly, the day before, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary has conducted a surprise inspection of Sub District Hospital Sunderbani, while earlier also the DyCM has conducted similar visits in different parts of Valley as the reports published in media have averred, but the outcome of these actions is not always positive because such inspections often offend the work force.
It is the time that the ministers and the top officers of health department should gain the confidence of staff and chalk out comprehensive strategy to work with zeal and leverage the latest available technology to provide best healthcare services whether the institution is situated in a city or the far off hamlets.
It would have been much better if the concerned ministers and the officers of the Health Department should come up with a stipulated schedule to visit these healthcare institutions and inform the stakeholders well in advance about their visits and targets to be achieved before their arrival to these institutions.
With this approach, it is likely that cooperation between the helmsmen and the people working in field will bring about positive changes as the positivity will bring in more energy and goodwill among the medicos unlike the negative approach of conducting unscheduled and uninformed inspections with a motive to catch the people indulging in playing truancy or other unprincipled things.
