Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 6: Beginning from the second week of January next year, a series of Medical Specialty Camps, with collaboration from Super-Specialist doctors of Army, have been planned for the remote areas in hill districts of Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar, as well as hilly areas of Udhampur and Reasi.
This was disclosed here today by Union Minister and Member of Parliament from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh, after a meeting with Lt. General M. Ganguly, who called on him after taking over new assignment as Director General Medical Services (DGMS) – Army, here today.
Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that a Super-Specialty Medical Camp held for two days in Bhaderwah in the month of June had proved highly successful, wherein thousands of patients from the surrounding areas had sought the benefit of treatment from some of the leading Super-Specialist doctors drawn from hospitals across the country. Encouraged by this experiment, he said, a series of similar Medical Camps have been planned for next year, beginning from the month of January.
The non-availability of adequate healthcare facility coupled with inaccessibility to reach the nearest Health Centre due to difficult hilly terrains, Dr Jitendra Singh said, led to avoidable morbidity, mortality and higher prevalence of disease in these areas. He said, he had recently also put forward the idea of introducing Heli-Clinics / Helicopter Clinics for these areas and posting of Specialist doctors in the far-flung Health Centres.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in these peripheral areas, more than 1/3rd of population does not have access to hospital beds and the Health Centres are under-staffed or ill-equipped. Till the time, the objective of providing adequate healthcare facility in these areas could be achieved, he said, there is need to have an institutionalized mechanism of regular medical camps by Specialist doctors.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that he had requested the State Administration to equip the District Hospitals in towns like Kishtwar and Reasi, as per the norms and guidelines required to designate a hospital as a District hospital, because a widespread and wrong myth is that a Civil Hospital can be designated as a District Hospital simply because it happens to be located in the district headquarters. He said, early attention is required towards such hospitals and Health Centres where, for example, we have a surgeon but no anesthetist or we have an Ultrasound machine but no Radiologist, because this not only leads to wastage of resources, but also sends out a message of insensitivity towards healthcare.
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