Universal Health Coverage (UHC) aspires to ensure everyone can access quality healthcare services without financial hardship. While it has gained global recognition, notably through the Alma-Ata Declaration and its integration into the Sustainable Development Goals, its implementation remains uneven across regions. Kashmir serves as a stark example where UHC’s principles clash with ground realities. The Global Vision of UHC represents a transformative approach to healthcare. It emphasizes three key components: equitable access to essential health services, financial risk protection, and high-quality service delivery. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of robust healthcare systems, as nations with UHC-oriented policies fared better in managing public health crises. In Kashmir, however, achieving UHC is a monumental challenge. The region’s healthcare system suffers from underfunding, outdated infrastructure, and significant workforce shortages. Tertiary care centers in Srinagar and other urban hubs remain overburdened as rural healthcare facilities lack even basic amenities. This disparity forces patients from remote villages to travel long distances, often enduring financial strain and delays in treatment. Moreover, the ratio of healthcare professionals to the population in Kashmir is far below the national average. Specialists, particularly in fields like oncology and cardiology, are concentrated in urban centers, leaving rural areas underserved. Diagnostic facilities, emergency services, and maternal health programs also fall short, exacerbating preventable health crises. One of the core tenets of UHC is financial protection against catastrophic healthcare costs. In Kashmir, the absence of a well-functioning public healthcare system pushes many families into poverty. Despite government schemes like Ayushman Bharat, out-of-pocket expenses remain high for diagnostic tests, medications, and specialist consultations. Private hospitals, which are often the only option for advanced care, charge exorbitant fees, further marginalizing economically disadvantaged families. The ongoing conflict and geographical isolation compound Kashmir’s healthcare woes.
“Bridging the gap between global aspirations and local realities will not only transform healthcare in Kashmir but also reaffirm the principle that access to health is a fundamental human right. By aligning UHC’s goals with the region’s unique needs, policymakers can transform Kashmir’s healthcare landscape, ensuring that no one is left behind in the pursuit of health and well-being.”
Frequent curfews, road blockades, and harsh winters disrupt the supply of essential medicines and limit patient mobility. Mental health issues, a critical concern in the conflict-ridden region, receive inadequate attention due to societal stigma and insufficient mental health professionals. Achieving UHC in Kashmir requires a multi-pronged strategy tailored to its unique challenges, some of these include:
1. Infrastructure Development: Strengthening primary healthcarecenters in rural areas with state of the art infrastructure, advanced equipment and trained staff.Except for few city hospitals, which healthcare institutions in Kashmir has 24×7 central heating/cooling facilities. The present administrators of all these institutions always find cosmetic solutions by installing electric or gas driven room heaters/coolers. Many times, these things are also missing.
2. Workforce Expansion: Incentivizing doctors and specialists to work in underserved areas through financial rewards and career development opportunities. This will truly cover urban rural gap in health Coverage.Another step that is easy to implement and can reduce this gap is by Establishing vibrant telemedicine facilities 24×7.
3. Besidesall said, unsaid, fixing responsibilities at every level of healthcare system, rewarding for good, penalizing for bad may turn the tides to a safer, secure and harmonious healthcare services in Kashmir.
Universal Health Coverage offers a roadmap for social justice, poverty reduction, and economic growth. For Kashmir, adopting UHC requires political will, community engagement, and sustained investment in healthcare systems. Bridging the gap between global aspirations and local realities will not only transform healthcare in Kashmir but also reaffirm the principle that access to health is a fundamental human right. By aligning UHC’s goals with the region’s unique needs, policymakers can transform Kashmir’s healthcare landscape, ensuring that no one is left behind in the pursuit of health and well-being.
(The author is a teacher at Govt Degree College Khansahib, Budgam.The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
Dr. Ashraf Zainabi
[email protected]
