Perhaps it has become now more or less customary for the State Government to look into pressing problems faced by the people only when they protest and even take to streets. At least, in matters of health care and treatment provided to the patients in the Government hospitals, the concerned ministry is expected, in all fairness, to remain responsive to the needs of the ailing and provide them required medical succor. The State Government has, on the one hand, been expanding the network of health institutions in small towns, sub districts and even villages but on the other hand, in most of the cases, such institutions lack reasonably adequate number of doctors including the specialists to treat the patients. One of such glaring examples is Sub District Hospital Kathua and other health institutions in the district. As per the available reports, not less than 100 posts of Assistant Surgeons and Specialists are lying vacant in these hospitals. The anguish and indignation of the people can only be justified when they find themselves confronted with many a problem in these hospitals on account of shortage of the requisite number of doctors.
The hopes of the people to have the District Hospital Kathua as Model Hospital as promised, appear to them not less than an illusion. It is beyond one’s comprehension as to how can a hospital function normally with just 20 doctors against a sanctioned strength of 50? The fact of the matter is that the number of sanctioned posts is also not on any liberal grounds but frugally assessed on need-based considerations. In the moments of emergencies, the entire pressure of attending the patients falls squarely on these 20 doctors. The level of efficiency of the attending doctors and the sufferings of the patients can well be visualized which in most of the cases, becomes causes of mess and even strife in the hospitals. The position of other heath institutions in the district is in no way comparatively better and speaks in itself the sordid story of neglect by the authorities. Who is to own responsibility for this problem, which otherwise could have been avoided well in time?
Merely by construction of good buildings for hospitals do not make them operationally feasible unless they are equipped with the necessary infrastructure, the latest machines and the most important of all the adequate medical staff. It augurs not well for the Government to take refuge under the oft repeated “cash crunch” as the state is receiving adequate funds from the Union Government in the health care sector. That no action is taken despite the matter of shortage of medical staff being discussed threadbare in the District Development Board meetings only shows the lackadaisical approach of the concerned authorities. That public health concerns are not appearing to be central to the concerns of the policy planners especially from the Health and the Finance Ministries can by no means be justified. Healthcare is a human right and needs to be seen in that perspective. The patience of the patients may not be put to any further test.
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