One part of our political leadership is to resort to media hype for every sundry activity. This is done with the understanding that it wins them popularity with the masses of people. Democracy becomes farce when intentions and actions become divergent. Medical facility is an item with which general public is deeply concerned. Political leaders have no qualms of conscience in declaring that hyper facilities will be provided to people in hospitals. But the ground reality is that everything gets mired in the labyrinth of administrative bottlenecks.
The case in point is of CT scan machine in the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Jammu. The institution had two CT scan machines out of which one has become dysfunctional owing to age. Ordinarily a CT scan machine becomes out of function after having been used for ten years. Hospital authorities had taken up the case of replacement of this machine by a new one a year ahead of the expiry dates. So far the Government has not provided the new machine. This means that patients referred for CT scan have to wait endlessly till their turn comes, which may take weeks owing to large number of patients already in the waiting line.
One fails to understand why the authorities do not move in time to provide necessary equipment to the premier medical institute in Jammu Division. There is an increased workload in this premier medical institute because people expect more facilities and better treatment with qualified faculty serving the patients. But they feel disappointed on finding that the most important equipment namely CT scan machine dysfunctional. It is preposterous to think of a hospital and a medical college without excellent radiological equipment. Patients referred for CT scan have to go to private clinics or hospitals for scanning where they have to pay exorbitantly and beyond their means. This is no relief to poor people.
We would like to invite the attention of the Minister for Health to take note of the suffering and inconvenience of the people in regard to lack of essential medical equipment in the GMCH Jammu and remove all obstacles in the way of installing a new CT scan machine in the GMCH. The matter should not be left to the red tape, which is insensitive to urgent needs of the people. The matter should have been solved in normal course and there should not have been the need of inviting the attention of the Health Minister. But things are not moving free of hassles. Therefore the intervention by the Minister of Health has become unavoidable.