“Imposing restrictions on their private practice can only partially improve the working of Government hospitals in rural areas as the Government does not declare the postings of doctors selected under reserved categories non transferrable in the Government hospitals of their original places of residences atleast for ten years.”
Experiences of decades have shown that infrastructure is next to the availability of healthcare professionals particularly doctors at Government hospitals and more so in the rural areas in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. The reports about birth of a child on a snow-blocked road in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district very recently shows the working of healthcare services in bad light in remote rural areas of Kashmir Valley and the state of healthcare services won’t be probably better in the rural areas of Jammu division as well . Chief Secretary Attal Dulloo laying increased emphasis on filling the vacant positions of healthcare professionals in Government hospitals in rural areas at a recently held review meeting of the Health & Medical Education Department is though a good beginning for improving the delivery of healthcare services in rural hospitals in Jammu & Kashmir but not an end in itself. True it is that Jammu & Kashmir Public Services Commission is setting a good precedent of completing selection of atleast one batch of doctors for appointment in Government hospitals annually but keeping in view the rising shortage of doctors at Government hospitals in rural areas expediting the selection processes for doctors deserves and demands close attention and intervention of the both the Government and as well as the Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission (J&K PSC). Though onus of expediting the recruitment of doctors’ lies on J&K Public Service Commission but ultimately it is for the Government to expedite the process of referring the vacant positions of doctors to J&K Public Service Commission. Moreover merely expediting the process of selections of doctors alone won’t improve the delivery of healthcare services at Government hospitals in rural areas but expediting the process of selections for paramedics also deserves and demands an equal attention and intervention of both the Government and as well as Jammu & Kashmir Services Selection Board (J&K SSB). So fast tracking the selections of doctors and paramedics doesn’t only necessitate close cooperation and collaboration between the Government and the J&K Public Service Commission (J&K PSC) but also between the Government and the J&K Services Selection Board (J&K SSB).
“While expediting recruitments of doctors could resolve the unending shortage of doctors and paramedics at Government hospitals in rural areas, a proposal to declare the postings of doctors selected under reserved category non transferrable at their original places of residences at least for ten years could hugely reduce the shortage of doctors in rural hospitals across Jammu & Kashmir.”
J&K Government’s recent proposal to offer non-practising allowance to doctors working in Government hospitals for imposing restrictions on their private practice can only partially improve the working of Government hospitals in rural areas as the Government does not declare the postings of doctors selected under reserved categories non transferrable in the Government hospitals of their original places of residences atleast for ten years. Experiences of decades have shown that politico-bureaucrats influence is the cause of overstaffing at urban hospitals and understaffing at rural hospitals. So while expediting recruitments of doctors could resolve the unending shortage of doctors and paramedics at Government hospitals in rural areas, a proposal to declare the postings of doctors selected under reserved category non transferrable at their original places of residences at least for ten years could hugely reduce the shortage of doctors in rural hospitals across Jammu & Kashmir.
