‘J&K healthcare needs major overhaul’

New Delhi, Apr 18: Healthcare delivery in J&K needs a major overhaul in order to cater to changing healthcare needs of the population and in view of the deficiencies that lack definitive contours.

In an exclusive talk on the sidelines of five year commemoration of Gauri Kaul Foundation, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Retired IAS Officer and former Advisor to Governor, J&K, told Greater Kashmir a thorough assessment of J&K Health was mandatory in order to address pressing issues.

Ganai called for audit of healthcare infrastructure and human resource to improve facilities in outlay areas of J&K.

He said gap assessment of manpower in health facilities, measured against the population needs of the area, would help the incumbent Government get a realistic estimate of the deficiencies that need to be filled.

“There may be a lot of deficiencies, and not everything can be fixed at the same time. However, gap analysis would definitely help in a realistic and cascaded approach to addressing the issues of recruitment,” he said.

In addition, the equipment and infrastructure audit was also necessary and mandated to assess the deficiency as per the IPHS norms.

This approach will also elucidate where the problem lies and provide factual and data-powered budget demands from the health sector.

“This will make a lasting impact on the improvement of healthcare delivery in the outlying areas,” he said.

In the second stage, Government could address the burning issue of upgradation based on health facilities.

“Certain facilities could be augmented and some more areas could be covered, depending on the needs of the population, and subject to availability of resources,” he said.

Ganai said that Directorate of Health Services and Jammu have their facilities spanning in rural, semi-urban, sub-urban, rural and outlay areas.

“These Directorates,” he said, “Could be given the mandate of healthcare services only in rural and outlay areas.”

This, he said, would consolidate the towns and district headquarters to have their healthcare facilities catered by new medical colleges and medical education department, while cities like Jammu and Srinagar are already saturated with facilities.

“It is only the rural, peripheral areas and populations that are suffering due to shortage of human resource in health facilities, as many people, recruited for these facilities manage to get easier, central postings in Directorate,” he said.

He said the people who are appointed and recruited for rural service will have no other choice but to work in rural hospitals.

In 2014, new CD blocks were created, but these blocks are not coterminous with medical blocks.

“There is a haitus between CD blocks and health blocks. The medical block is serving a different set of villages, while the CD block is a different area. The medical blocks at the current time are much less than the number of CD blocks,” he said. “There would be better planning and allocation of resources at Panchayat level and district level if these blocks are coterminous.”

Referring to the private sector healthcare penetration in rural areas, he said, that private investment and facilities must be encouraged.

The public-private partnerships must be encouraged so that there are improved facilities for people across the geographies in J&K.

“However, there needs to be more vigil on the private sector to ensure ethical practices and standards,” he said.