Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 22: As frequent modifications of transfer orders and attachment galore in Health Department, the Government run hospitals in rural areas of Jammu division are functioning without doctors.
Despite adequate sanctioned strength to cater to the demand, maximum of the positions of Assistant Surgeons/Medical Officers and Specialists in Sub-District Hospitals, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres are lying vacant with the result that Nursing Orderlies and Para Medical staff are running these remotely located Health centres.
As per the data collected by the Excelsior, 17 out of 19 positions of doctors in Pouni block of Reasi district are lying vacant while 27 out of 30 posts of doctors in Mahore block are unfilled.
Even in District Hospital Reasi, all the posts of Surgeon Consultant, Gynecologist, Consultant Paediatric Specialist and three out of seven posts of Medical Officer are lying vacant.
In entire district of Reasi, there are 93 sanctioned posts of doctors but 61 of them are vacant while only 32 are filled.
In Mahore block, PHC Gota, PHC Banna, PHC Bhagodass, NPHC Thuroo, NPHC Budhan, NPHC Balmalkote, NPHC Lar and NPHC Dewar are being run without any doctor even each of the Health Centre has a sanctioned post of two Medical Officers.
Similarly in Pouni Block, all the Primary Health Centres, except PHC Pouni, are without any doctor despite sanctioned posts of two Medical Officers for each of them. Three out of five sanctioned posts of Medical Officers at PHC Pouni are vacant while PHC Laiter, PHC Bharakh, PHC Thakrakote, PHC Ransoo and NPHC Jiij are also being run without any doctor.
In Bani block of Kathua district, only four doctors, including the Block Medical Officer, are in position while 17 others are vacant. Situation can gauged from the fact that in Sub District Hospital Bani, seven out of nine posts of Assistant Surgeons are lying vacant while four out of five Specialists are also unfilled.
In Basantgarh block of Udhampur district, there are 17 posts of doctors in five Primary Health Centres and seven Community Health Centres, with sanctioned strength of two doctors for each PHC and one for each CHC. However, nine out of total 10 positions in PHCs and five out of seven in CHCs, are lying vacant.
In entire Chenani block, there are only two doctors in position despite a sanctioned strength of 17 while in Pancheri block, 16 out of 17 posts of doctors are vacant.
All the five PHCs in Chenani, each of which has a sanctioned strength of two Medical Officers, are being run by Para Medical Staff in absence of any doctor while in all the seven CHCs, only two are having doctors in position.
However, on the other hand, Urban Health Centres in Winter Capital of the State, which are rarely visited by the patients, are having around five times the sanctioned strength of doctors because of attachments while frequent modification of transfer orders has added more troubles to the prevailing chaos in Health Department.
There are more than a dozen Urban Health Centres in Jammu City, each of which has a sanctioned strength of two doctors. However, despite no requirement, at least 8 to 10 doctors are attached in each of these Health Centres.
More ironic is the fact that even those doctors, who had secured Medical seats under RBA quota and hailing from remote areas, are also deployed in Jammu City.
When contacted, Director Health Service, Jammu, Dr Gurjeet Singh admitted that a number of health centres in rural areas were without doctors, who did not join their place of posting. “The Department is aware of the situation and necessary steps are being taken,” he said and added that notices have been issued to the erring doctors for further action.
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