Expenditure of crores of rupees turns out to be unfruitful
Fails to treat even single accident victim during past 6 yrs
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 6: Unbelie-vable it may sound but it is a fact that Trauma Care Centre at Ramban, which was constructed with the sole objective of providing timely care to the victims of road accidents on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, is itself crying for the care of Government during the past six years.
Due to this, the hospital has failed to treat even single trauma patient and entire expenditure in the shape of raising of structure and installation of medical equipments has turned out to be unfruitful.
Had this health institution been made operational lives of several victims of tragic road accident took place today could have been saved and hassle of airlifting or transporting the injured to other hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar avoided.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that keeping in view spurt in the road traffic accidents particularly in the hilly areas and subsequent requirement of specialized resources to save the lives of people, the Union Government several years back sanctioned some Trauma Care Centres for J&K.
One such centre was sanctioned for Ramban and its structure was raised near the building of District Hospital at a cost of Rs 1.84 crore and thereafter several vital medical equipments were installed with much hype particularly by those who were at the helm of affairs in the Health Department of the State.
Being Level-II Trauma Care Centre, it was supposed to provide round the clock services of General Surgeons and Specialists of Orthopaedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Anaesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Radiology and Critical Care.
However, during the past six years the Trauma Care Centre has failed to treat even a single patient as no seriousness has been shown till date to sanction and deploy required manpower to make this health institution functional, sources said, adding “the building of the Trauma Care Centre is the testimony of how shabbily the health sector was treated by the successive Governments”.
The absolute non-serious approach towards this and other Trauma Care Centres in the State is notwithstanding the fact that former Governor N N Vohra in 2015, while expressing anguish over Trauma Care Centres on the highways not serving the intended purpose, had fixed a deadline for the Health Department for making them fully operational.
“Shamelessly, the previous PDP-BJP Coalition Government during the Budget Session held in the month of February this year had admitted on the floor of the Legislative Assembly that no posts of doctors and paramedical staff have been sanctioned for Trauma Care Centre Ramban”, sources said, adding “even during present Governor’s rule no serious attention has so far been paid towards making all the Trauma Care Centres including the important one at Ramban fully operational”.
Stating that expenditure worth several crores of rupees on the structure and equipments of the Trauma Care Centre has turned out to be unfruitful, sources said, “had Trauma Care Centre been made operational lives of several road accident victims could have been saved till date. Even shifting of persons injured in today’s accident to other health institutions could have been avoided”.
“There is already deficiency of staff in the main District Hospital and non-posting of doctors for the Trauma Care Centre is further creating problems in handling the cases of trauma”, a senior doctor of the hospital said, adding “mere having building for the Trauma Centre doesn’t mean that lives of people suffering from trauma can be easily saved. The other requirements have not been taken seriously by the concerned authorities till date”.
He disclosed that there is only one Radiologist, one Orthopaedic Surgeon and one Anaesthesiologist in the District Hospital Ramban and several posts of Specialists have been lying vacant since long despite the fact that there is no let up in tragic road accidents particularly on Banihal-Ramban stretch of the National Highway.
“Requests were made to the senior authorities of the Health Department a number of times for posting of adequate number of Specialists at least in the District Hospital but it seems that nobody wants to improve the situation”, a senior doctor said on the condition of anonymity.
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