Rural Health Sector still Primitive in Jammu and Kashmir

Rural Health Sector still Primitive in Jammu and Kashmir

 

SHAFQAT  SHEIKH

The Jammu and Kashmir government is running Public Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub Centres in some parts of the Kishtwar district in violation of staff requirement norms and has been operating these from rented accommodations with damaged and old infrastructure for since long. Despite tall claims of Health Ministry and legislators to provide better medicare facilities at the doorsteps of every nook and corner of the State through numerous State and Centrally Sponsored Schemes, due to the lack of doctors and even para-medical staff in the rural Health care centres of Kishtwar district, people have no other option but to travel 200 km to Jammu even for the treatment of common ailments.

PHC Nali in Bunjwah region of Kishtwar district is the worse example of the pathetic attitude of the Govt towards medicare facilities in the Bunjwah region where other Health Sub Centres in far-flung areas including Kither, Buddhar, Suranga, Patnazi, Kewa, Pashalla, and Balgran are opened only once in a week or twice in a month.

Now a day patients are treated in the open sky which is enough to tell the apathetic attitude of the concerned authorities sitting at the helm of affairs that shows the real image of PHC Nali which faces a shortage of space, staff, lack of residential quarters, paramedical staff and other necessary types of equipment, etc.

Starting many years ago, PHC Nali in Bonjwah Tehsil of District Kishtwar has not progressed till date. As a result, the PHC still operates within the same infrastructure as it had before being opened in some rooms. Despite knowing the poor condition of hospitals across the state, Former Ministers of the Jammu and Kashmir Health Department vowed development in the Health Department, narrating their working style in public meetings and before State/ Union leaders but the reality differs from his fictions. Acute space shortage has badly hit services at Primary Health Centre Nali Bunjwah where health employees and doctors are finding it difficult to cater to the increasing patient rush.

The PHC Nali with a capacity of few patients, admits patients from across Bonjwah Tehsil but is deficient in space, besides nursing and other paramedical staff. The hospital beds are regularly occupied by two to three patients as I visited several times there. A source informed that in the Health sector Bunjwah there are own rules established by doctors as they are performing duties turn by turn from week to week among which few are performing their honesty and dedication. Besides the shortage of doctors in Sub Centres in Buddhar, Suranga, Kither, Kewa, Pashalla, and Balgran had hit the life of common masses badly as these centres are opened only once a week or twice a month.

Source added that PHC Nali only has five rooms in which there is One Medical Officer office, One labour room, Lab section, One dental section, and One emergency room”. Added that patients are facing difficulties with hospital beds and medicines as they get the quota of medicines on the new pattern of PHC.

A patient said, “This is the same PHC that I had seen when I was a child, today I brought my child to the PHC, Nali for treatment but it is unfortunate that for the last so many years neither this PHC has been upgraded nor the condition improved.

 “With the current strength of staff, and accommodation of PHC it is impossible to run the same during late-night hours,” said an official. It is pertinent to mention that " Due to shortage of doctors and paramedical staff in the far-flung region of Bunjwah, PHCs, sub-centers, and dispensaries, people have to travel long distances to either visit district hospitals or hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar. While Jammu is about 250 Km from here, Srinagar is more than 300 Km.       

Healthcare in the remote Bunjwah area, having a population of about 35,000 people, is worst affected. The area is not getting any government attention. "Some health centres still operate from rented accommodations with poor infrastructure," eyewitnesses of the scene. In Bunjwah, only one PHC has been running at Nali for many years. The government had now opened Sub Centres, Dispensaries in the darling area of Bunjwah along with a new type of PHC at Patnazi. As these Sub Centres and dispensaries were still not up to the mark as they face a shortage of staffs results the whole population of Bunjwah became dependent on PHC Nali, which too was devoid of modern facilities, sources alleged, saying that due to shortage of staff, doctors were finding it difficult to cater to the increasing rush of patients.      

A senior doctor of PHC Nali said ''We are having few rooms and we face it very tough in catering to the huge rush of patients. Patients are also facing difficulties as PHC lacks hospital beds. It also does not have a separate OPD block." Noor Din, a patient, said, "This is the same PHC that I saw when I was a child, and today, I brought my child here for treatment."

He said it was unfortunate that for the last so many years, neither PHC was upgraded to CHC nor the conditions had improved. Sources informed that some years ago land was acquired for the construction of separate blocks but to date, nothing was visible on the ground. Bunjwah residents various times before representatives demanded up-gradation of the PHC to CHC, the full strength of staff, separate blocks, X-Ray, ECG, Blood bank, and other health facilities.

There is much abysmal deficiency for most of the basic requirements of life in our rural areas. We need to make a very frank and fair analysis of which way our democracy is drifting. Certainly, everything is not right with it and unless we call a spade by its name we shall not be able to bring about reforms and improve a lot of ordinary bread earners.

Seventy-five years have gone by when India became free from colonial rule. But developmental activity needed to consider the entire mass of the population. How could we see the dawn of prosperity unless we had begun our long march towards the destination of progress from the villages and hamlets where India lives. Of various services, education and health care are perhaps the two most important areas and these had to be prioritised at any rate if we wanted India to enter a new era of her social and political life. Our policy planners are fully aware that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is mostly a hilly and Kandi state with a very weak economy. 

This area is not attractive so that teachers and medical professionals would be willing to be posted there. Hence they try to avoid being posted to far-flung areas of district Doda and Kishtwar particularly in Tehsil Bunjwah and other regions of the district. The condition of hospitals, dispensaries, medical care units in the Bunjwah area is dismal. The health care area in this mountainous region is so dismal that even the elected representatives of these areas have been expressing their helplessness in persuading authorities to provide the hospitals with minimum facilities and medical staff.

Patients have to be carried to Udhampur or Jammu for radiology and ultrasound or common ailments. Complaints are regularly made by the people, Social Activists, and NGOs but the concerned representative and Government have closed their ears and do not listen. In the case of natural calamities and minor ailments in these far-flung areas, the affected patients need quick first aid treatment if their lives have to be saved. However, what is the utility of having such Health Centres in Buddhar, Suranga, Kither, Balgran, Pashalla, and Kewa when there are no doctors to attend to the patients? This is the unspeakable condition of the rural health centres, hospitals, and the treatment that the Health Department authorities are meting out to them. 

Back to the tenure of former Chief Minister and Union Health Minister of India Ghulam Nabi Azad addressing a mass gathering at Binoon announced 20 bedded hospitals at Nali and the same at Patnazi and improvement of other Health centres of Bunjwah region on top priority. More than a decade passed after his announcement. Nothing came to be seen in real figures as it was only hallowed slogans and vote bank policy of Congress. 

It came to be seen that in Nali doctors residential quarter building plinth foundation was laid two decades ago but till day no building work was taken out that results from the complete failure of legislators and representatives of Bunjwah.               

The rural people of the Bunjwah region in the State are destined to live poor and deprived lives. The Government should take steps on war-footing to improve the plights of people living in far-flung areas of Tehsil Bunjwah. It is time that state was bifurcated into Union Territory and is headed by Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha wherein the general society seeks personally intervene in this matter so as Health care facilities in Bunjwah region of Kishtwar district can be improved otherwise we be back like early manage in this modern era of science and technology.

 

    {The author is a Freelance Journalist Columnist and Socio-Political Activist from Kishtwar Jammu and Kashmir and can be reached at freelancershafqat@gmail.com  09419974577}.