As the intensity of covid-19 pandemic is dropping down to all time low in Jammu & Kashmir like most of the states and union territories of the country, the concerns of the people are now virtually shifting to upgradation of health care facilities for the purposes of their health safety in both Kashmir valley and Jammu division. For the purposes of equitable accessibility of both ruralites and as well as urbanites to health care facilities there is no short cut to upgradation of both rural and urban healthcare system in Jammu & Kashmir. The successive popular governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state in yesteryears focused more on construction, reconstruction , repairs and renovation of old and new hospital buildings and very less on equipping hospitals with the latest infrastructural facilities and more so in the rural areas. In fact the previous popular governments of erstwhile J&K state have not fully taken care of even the manpower requirements in both the rural and urban hospitals as reports about the shortage of doctors and paramedics in rural hospitals hit newspaper headlines day in and day out. Merely construction of a building for a hospital does not make the hospital fully operational in any village or town but before laying down the foundation of a hospital the accessibility of people to better road connectivity has to be ensured for the purposes of smooth transport facility for both the patients and as well as the hospital staff. While some hospitals are functioning without the facility of even ambulances, most of the rural hospitals in inaccessible areas don’t have the facility of even diagnostic laboratories. While for prompt accessibility of people to hospitals the transport services and roads have to be upgraded, the staff strength and as well as diagnostic facilities in the hospirals have to be also raised to the optimum levels.
Not only the implementation of already approved plans for upgradation of healthcare infrastructure and fast recruitment of all the vacancies of doctors and paramedics referred to J&K Public Service Commission and J&K Services Selection Board in yesteryears but the process of new upgradation plans for more hospitals and referring of more posts of doctors and paramedics to J&K PSC and J&K SSB also deserves immediate attention of the government in view of the rising concerns of people on their accessibility to basic health care facilities both in rural and urban areas of Jammu & Kashmir.
While the implementation of the plans already approved by the successive popular governments of erstwhile J&K state for upgradation of both rural and urban hospitals is overdue, similarly the recruitment of both the doctors and paramedics has to be fast paced for the purposes of overcoming the manpower shortages in both rural and urban hospitals. Not only the implementation of already approved plans for upgradation of healthcare infrastructure and fast recruitment of all the vacancies of doctors and paramedics referred to J&K Public Service Commission and J&K Services Selection Board in yesteryears but the process of new upgradation plans for more hospitals and referring of more posts of doctors and paramedics to J&K PSC and J&K SSB also deserves immediate attention of the government in view of the rising concerns of people on their accessibility to basic health care facilities both in rural and urban areas of Jammu & Kashmir.
