Though much is debated about the basic health care facilities for the ruralites in Jammu & Kashmir but very little has been done to upgrade the healthcare infrastructure in villages over the periods the popular government ruled erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. Since Lt Governor Manoj Sinha very recently said that Jammu & Kashmir tops the list of states and union territories spending massively on health care ,people in Jammu & Kashmir expect an improvement in the basic healthcare facilities in the rural parts of both Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. As the fact remains that besides spending massively on health infrastructural in rural areas the Health Services & Medical Education departments are also spending a lot under various centrally sponsored schemes but even then most of the upgraded hospitals in remote rural areas are run in private buildings hired by the government for since last several years . Unprecedented delays in the construction of hospital buildings has shockingly disrupted the plans of equipping hospitals with the infrastructural facilities required for patient care facilities in remote rural . Since the lack of basic infrastructural facilities has also disrupted the plans of manpower upgradation in the upgraded hospitals particularly the sub district hospitals and primary health centres, the basic health care delivery system is in shambles. Shockingly the doctor – patient ratio in Jammu and Kashmir is amongst the lowest in India and worth mentioning is the fact that WHO norm for doctor-patient ratio is 1 doctor for 1,000 population. The basic healthcare facilities are so poor even in the district hospitals that majority of the women facing health issues are referred from peripheral hospital to Kashmir valley’s solitary tertiary care maternity hospital – Lal Ded Hospital Srinagar. Shocking it is that even the women who suffer from the basic gynecological problems are referred to this hospital from the district hospitals amid increasing intensity in the ongoing wave of pandemic in Jammu & Kashmir. Allegations are galore that over a dozen district hospitals established to reduce the burden on main referral hospitals in Srinagar during the period of popular rule in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state have not made any difference in either Kashmir valley or Jammu division.
High dependency unit (HDU) is an area in a hospital where patients can be cared for more intensely than in a normal ward, but not to the point of intensive care. Keeping in view inaccessibility of the people of the hilly areas of Jammu & Kashmir to prompt healthcare facilities in rural hospitals during harshest months of winter , the upgradation of healthcare infrastructural facilities should be a priority for the government hereafter .
While none of the district hospitals in Kashmir has a high dependency unit (HDU), not to mention an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) , extension of such healthcare infrastructural facilities in rural hospital is over due now . What merits a mention here is the fact that high dependency unit (HDU) is an area in a hospital where patients can be cared for more intensely than in a normal ward, but not to the point of intensive care. Keeping in view inaccessibility of the people of the hilly areas of Jammu & Kashmir to prompt healthcare facilities in rural hospitals during harshest months of winter, the upgradation of healthcare infrastructural facilities should be a priority for the government hereafter.
