Institutional collapse of the healthcare system in Jammu and Kashmir
SHAFQAT SHEIKH
The two most important factors of public welfare in any nation-state could be best judged by education and healthcare which the state provides to its subjects, but unfortunately, these two sectors in Jammu and Kashmir have become highly privatized and commercial. Whereas the Pharma industry is itself controlled by rich political elites of the country, the healthcare system in India is in shambles despite hundreds of welfare schemes that are confined to paperwork, advertisements, and photo ops. The ground reality is far from mere sloganeering and hollow rhetorics.
The health care system in rural Jammu and Kashmir is completely hampered due to lack of equipments and accommodations during the harsh winter wherein the labour pain patients are not having any options to visit district hospital during sub zero temperature. In various cases labour pain patients gives birth to new born babies either on roads or inside the vehicles which is not new and rare happening in rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Few weeks ago, A labour pain patient in Bunjwah area was lifted on shoulders for more than 3kms to reach the nearest Health and Wellness Center earlier Primary Health Centre Nali and later was shifted to Government Medical College Doda and than shifted to Government Medical College Jammu for further treatment. Such happenings in Jammu and Kashmir jolted the whole country wherein the pregnant lady are facing such hardships due to lack of equipments and heating appliances of the hospital in sub-zero temperature. The irony of the fact is that many districts and voluntary organizations were also holding workshops and awareness camps on Ayushman Bharat and “Beti Bachao Beti Phado”, the flagship program of the government of India to save girl child and female mortality ratio on the day as well.
"Upgradation of PHC Nali to CHC Nali", There is an early need for the upgradation of PHC to CHC which is one of the genuine and long pending demands of Bunjwah. The area with a vast population is facing hardship due to the non-availability of Gynecologists, Dental Surgeon, and other Nursing and Paramedical staff. The other health centers established in Bunjwah are to be made properly functional along with NTPHC Patnazi to provide medical aid at doorsteps.
“Causes”
The biggest problem of the country and more specifically of Jammu and Kashmir is that of institutional failure and politicization of the health care system. The successive governments do not take the scientific and holistic view of schemes in totality before formulating any policy. The sanctioning of AIIMS pattern hospitals was taken to ameliorate the sufferings of the people but nothing is being done to equip the existing hospitals and public health centers. The premier institutions like GMCs and other peripheral hospitals don’t cater to the huge rush of patients who rush to them despite district hospitals in every district. The District Hospital and Public Health Centers are just bricks and walls for a few employees to draw a monthly salary. Thousands of women, newborns, and accidental patients die daily in these hospitals.
According to the World Health Organization, there is a great disparity in the doctor-patient ratio. The WHO recommends 1:1000 whereas its 1:2000 in India and Jammu and Kashmir at the lowest ebb of 1:3864. This disparity directly affects the lives of people which is further aggravated by the sluggish system of recruitment and placements in the public sector.
The district is running short of doctors and specialized types of equipment needed for critical cases. The Public health centers and Health Sub Centers in rural areas remain mostly closed or open with no doctor to look after the patients. Thanks to political machinery and corrupt bureaucracy for devising the plans of attachments and need basis.
The medical colleges in both divisions don't cater to the thousands of patients who throng them. Even in emerging wards, multiple patients are accommodated in the same bed let alone the emergency and accidental cases. Doctors more specifically junior doctors work at a stretch for more than four hours to treat thousands of patients in OPDs. Even patients with serious ailments of kidney failure, and cancer have to wait for months for their respective treatments and therapies. These dysfunctional peripheral and overcrowded city hospitals are playing havoc with the health care of the state.
Moreover, the doctors who pass out every year from medical colleges are not ready to serve in villages and their respective native places because of low career prospects and unprofessional environments which often leads to conflict even between the doctors and patients which is galore with the increasing rate of thrashing of paramedics, damage to hospital properties and scuffles between the patients and doctors. This uneven distribution of patients, ill-equipped peripheral hospitals, huge ratio gap between doctors and patients, low career prospects, and the politicization of the health department are becoming detrimental to the lives of the people.
“Need”
The need of the hour is to streamline the system. The biggest need of the time is to equip the district hospitals and public health centres both in human resources and machinery which would eventually give respite to the doctors and patients as well. It must be made mandatory for doctors even at the entry level to serve their native places at least for a decade both for experience to know the basic requirements and to serve the people. The biggest problem that disturbs the whole equilibrium is that the doctors are not ready to serve outside the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar. They prefer to go to other cities and foreign countries for a better future and huge dividends. Even the specialized serving doctors spend decades in the gulf in Europe despite the government role which itself is the depiction of our legal system and law enforcement mechanism. Let the trade of unethical practices of the major chunk of doctors be discussed in detail here.
Only infrastructural development won’t set right the track but other corrective measures need to be taken away from pomp and show with result-oriented policy, streamlining the induction and service rules, depoliticization of health department, better supply of human resources and advanced types of equipment, strict check on spurious drugs and unethical practices of doctors can help a lot to streamline the healthcare of the state. Besides, doctors must bear in mind that he is next to God for a patient and people must not forget that they are human beings like all of us with their own needs and necessities though blots are present in every profession.
(The author is a Freelance Writer and Columnist from Bunjwah Kishtwar and can be reached at freelancershafqat@gmail.com, 9419974577)