Govind Sharma
Since its inception in the year 2013, Government Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) Jammu has remained in news for all wrong reasons, be it absence of Emergency Block, Blood Bank, separate budgetary support and shortage of manpower but in last few years this hospital has emerged as a super speciality hospital in true sense with several rare and advance surgeries including renal transplant and open heart surgeries being performed here on daily basis.
With an estimated initial budget of over Rs 130 crore of which a portion of money was diverted to Pediatrics Hospital building in the SMGS Hospital, SSH Jammu started functioning in the year 2013 initially with eight departments but right now only seven specialties namely Cardio, CTVS, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Urology, Nephrology and Endocrinology are operational while Gastroenterology Department has been closed due to litigation and dispute between two senior most doctors.
SSH Jammu which is an associated hospital of Government Medical College (Jammu) is a registered centre for Kidney Transplantation since April 2022 and first kidney transplant was also conducted in the same month. State Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO) J&K which has been functioning in Super Specialty Hospital, has been instrumental in getting this registration from Director General Health Services (DGHS), New Delhi.
Till October 2023, 18 successful renal transplants were performed in SSH Jammu but all these transplants were done by a team of doctors from SSH Jammu under the supervision of Dr S Raina from Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai. The first-ever independent and in-house renal transplant transplant procedure was performed by a team of doctors in Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) in the month of October last year.
The surgical team, led by Dr Elias Sharma (Prof & Head Urology), Dr Rahul Gupta, Dr Ajay Anand, Dr Muzzain Iqbal, Dr Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Dr Yashir Rehman, Dr Chetan Sharma and Dr Yashir Mehmood are exhibiting extraordinary expertise and dedication in performing these intricate procedures, further solidifying the reputation of SSH Jammu as a leading healthcare institution in the region.
Pertinently, GMC Jammu is the first Government Medical College (GMC) to start kidney transplants in J&K. Moreover, only 5 to 10% Government Medical Colleges in lndia are running a successful kidney transplant programme and GMC is one among these GMCs. As on date, SSH Jammu has the distinction of performing 23 successful kidney transplants with donation from live related donors.
All these transplants were done under Ayushman Bharat free of cost. Previously, such patients used to go outside Jammu for getting transplants after expending too much money but now, people of Jammu province are getting such services at their doorstep without any cost. Further, these patients are getting expensive immunosuppressant drugs from the Hospital for one year subsequent to transplantation totally free of cost.
Moreover, necessary infrastructure for starting cadaveric donation is in place in the Hospital and efforts are being done for such donation. The process for procurement of HLA Lab has also been initiated which shall be instrumental in starting cadaveric organ transplantation in the institution.
Similarly, Department of Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), which is another major super speciality department in the Hospital has been performing Thoracic Surgeries such as Sleeve Resection, ‘Sedge Resection, Lobectomy, Bilobectomy, Pneumonectomy, Excision of Lung Cysts, Lung Tumours, Chest Wall Tumours, Tracheo-bronchial Tumours, Paravertebral Masses, Mediastinal Tumours, Diaphragmatic Repair, and all pericardial surgeries routinely.
Vascular surgeries of Carotid, Subclavian, Axillary, Brachial, Radial, Ulnar, Vessels, Abdominal Aorta, Superior-Inferior Cava, Common Iliac, External-Internal Iliac, Femoral, Popliteal, Posterior-Anterior Tibial and Peroneal Vessels are routinely performed here with very good results. Extra-cardiac operations for PDA, Coarctation of Aorta, Mitral Valve Disease are routinely done, besides shunt operations such as BT shunt and Spleno-renal.
The Department of CTVS is performing Open Heart operations for Atrial-Ventricular Septa defect, Mitral-Aortic-Tricuspid and Pulmonary Valve pathologies. Single Valve replacement, Double Valve replacement and even Double Valve replacement with third valve Annuloplasty is routinely done here. Operations for Cardiac/Atrial Tumours are also done. Surgical spectrum is being expanded, and operations for complex (TOP) cyanotic heart diseases, Descending Aortic Aneurysms (under CPB) and CABG have also been started and all the expenses of these surgeries are covered under Ayushmaan Bharat Scheme.
Further, the Department has been performing minimal access intra-cardiac operations, beating heart operations and open heart operations through Thoracotomy approach routinely. Moreover, the Department has already been inspected for DNB in Vascular Surgery and accredited for two seats from July 2024 while approval for DNB cardiovascular surgery is awaited.
Despite all these positive things, there is much more which needs to be done to make the SSH Jammu an institution at par with CMC/DMC Ludhiana, PGIMER Chandigarh, which was being claimed by the Government before its establishment. The major drawback of SSH Jammu is that there is No Emergency Block and patients have to first approach Emergency Block of GMC Jammu from where they are redirected to SSH but in this process critical time is lost, specifically for cardiac and neurosurgery patients.
A Super Specialty of Cardio and Neuro without Emergency defy all logics and till day no corrective action has been taken in this direction and that is why this Hospital is mostly called as Super Specialty Block instead of Super Specialty Hospital. Besides, there is urgent need to provide services of the Cardio OPD on all working days of the week, keeping in view the ever increasing cases of heart diseases but presently, this service is available on 3 days a week.
Another drawback of SSH Jammu is absence of Blood Bank, which a super speciality hospital must have. The Hospital has only a Blood Storage Centre, which is not enough when major surgeries are being done here on routine basis. The laboratory services are also not full-fledged here and for many lab tests, patients have to rush to GMC Jammu.
Further, there is no parking space for visitors. Though a multi-storey parking facility has been raised outside the Hospital complex but it is incomplete and open for staff of the Hospital only while visitors have to park their vehicles along the road outside the boundary of the Hospital. The Nephrology Department is also ill equipped.
The other two major issues affecting the working of SSH are acute shortage of senior faculty/resident doctors. Since its inception many faculty posts were filled up by staff from GMC and Associate hospitals, some doctors were also appointed directly but there is still acute shortage of senior faculty/resident doctors/registrars and the Hospital is functioning with only 40% faculty while 60% of the sanctioned posts of the faculty are lying vacant. Many faculty posts have been temporarily filled with deputation from Health Department and biggest example of this is Neurology Department wherein only one Assistant Professor is permanent faculty and others have been deputed from Health Department.
Nephrology Department, where at an average 40 patients use to undergo dialysis per day in 3 shifts, is also ill equipped. The Department is being run by only one Lecturer. Besides acute shortage of faculty, the Department is also short of an RO Plant. The lone RO Plant of the Hospital has lived its life and it was declared non-repairable by the concerned company in June last year when it went out of order and patients had to suffer for many days. Later, on June 24, an RO Plant with over 1000 litre capacity was donated to SSH Jammu by OSMOTECH (an RO manufacturing company) through their local partner Dinesh Gupta, Managing Director Globus Healthcare and the dialysis unit of the Hospital is presently being run with this RO Plant and if it develops some technical snag, there is no other arrangement.
In Neuro Surgery Department, there are only 2 faculty members against sanctioned strength of 5 while Urology, Neurology and Endocrinology departments have 2 faculty members each against sanctioned strength of 4, CTVS Department has 5 faculty members against sanctioned strength of 8 and Cardiology Department has 6 faculty members against sanctioned strength of 8.
The other major bottleneck being faced by SSH is no separate budget and no DDO powers to anyone in SSH with the result practically no direct role in projecting future necessary things, no direct say in crucial policy matters and only clubbed budget with GMC with no clearly demarked funds for specific projects like drugs, fluids, machinery, AMC and other store items. Without DDO powers no emergency drugs can be purchased on emergency basis and for that matter SSH has to look for approval from GMC Jammu.
Despite all these odds one must appreciate the never say die approach of some faculty members of SSH who tirelessly work extra hours to provide their best services to the suffering masses of Jammu and ever increasing number of OPD patients as well as indoor patients. With this team of dedicated staff one can imagine what miracles this hospital can do if proper equipment, appropriate strength of staff, para medicos, proper budget and other infrastructure is made available.
The Central Government has no doubt provided people with Ayushman Health Insurance cards but one requires infrastructure and manpower to run hospitals efficiently and with present strength of faculty, budget and wrong policies it is next to impossible for SSH Jammu to provide 24X7 unhindered services.
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