Bhardwaj reviews functioning of Health deptt, asks officers to deliver services with least waiting period

Srinagar: The Addl Chief Secretary, Health & Medical Education, Vivek Bhardwaj Tuesday took stock of the working and performance of the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir here.
The meeting was attended by Director Health Services, Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad Rather; DG Planning, H&ME; Satveer Kour; Joint Director Headquarter, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and other officers of the department.
Bhardwaj urged the officers to work for reducing the waiting time of all the tests and other services offered by the department especially the RT-PCR tests and ambulance services.
The Addl CS enquired from each officer about their role and responsibility and their mode of work. He asked them to identify the problems faced by each of them so that these are resolved forthwith.
He enjoined upon them that their work is of utmost significance and cannot be taken casually for a moment. He offered the officers his support and assistance in all their endeavours taken towards strengthening the systems of the department.
On the occasion the Director made an introductory power point presentation regarding the working, performance and achievements made by the department.
It was revealed in the meeting that J&K has 3-tier medical delivery system in place based on primary, secondary and tertiary care health institutions. It was said that there are 1744 health institutions here in valley including 8 district hospitals, 46 Sub District Hospitals, 216 PHCs and 1184 Sub-centres with a total bed strength of 4564 in the division.
It was further given out that there are 6721 staff members manning these health institutions including 1675 Medical Officers, 407 consultants, 14 Sr Consultants, 311 Dental Surgeons and 6721 paramedics.In addition to it there is the NHM staff in position also to look after the working of these health care institutions.
The meeting was further informed that 33.34 lakh OPD admissions, 1.03 lakh IPD admissions, 0.07 lakh surgeries, 11.25 lakh lab tests and 0.14 lakh deliveries were done by the department.
It was also apprised that among specialized services 10 hospitals were provided with dialysis facility having more than 13000 sessions conducted till date. The addiction treatment facilities has been introduced in 5 districts and blood storage facilities at all the district hospitals and blood component separation unit at 5 health institutions.
The Addl CS was also informed that there are 04 Ancillary Nursing Midwifery Training (ANMT) schools, 05 ANM schools, 06 GNM schools functional in the valley.He was also apprised that J&K is the first to have Skill & Simulation Center established at Dhobiwan here.
Regarding the operation of ambulance services it was said that the department is running 33 ALS, 31 BLS on 108 emergency number, 136 ambulances on 102 emergency number and 08 critical care ambulances are already in service here.
Giving details about the covid care facilities it was said that 10 dedicated covid hospitals, 8 dedicated covid health centres and 2106 covid care centres having nearly 1285, 720 and 8424 beds respectively. These covid hospitals house around 118 ICU beds, as the meeting was informed.
It was further made out that at the beginning of the epidemic the installed capacity of oxygen was 900 LPM which has till been increased to 21450 LPM by the current dispensation. Besides it was revealed that more than 56 lakh covid tests were performed including about 1343005 RT-PCR tests.
About the covid vaccination, it was said that 38.92 lakh doses were administered till date. The department is currently taking all the measures and readying itself for the expected 3rd wave of this disease, as was made out in the meeting.