Good news on health sector front

It is heartening to note that the NITI Aayog has ranked three district hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir as top performers for the year 2018-19 on the basis of already identified indicators. District Hospital Baramulla has been ranked first in availability of support services and availability of diagnostic testing services while as District Hospital Bandipora has been ranked first in bed occupancy rate and JNLM Hospital of Srinagar has been ranked first in C-Section rate, against the total number of deliveries performed in a year including normal and assisted deliveries and C Sections. NITI Aayog has asked for documenting these best practices of each of these top performing hospitals so that same can be replicated in the other healthcare institutions of the country. The staff and the administrations of these hospitals deserve a pat for being laurels to the medical fraternity besides the administration of the Union Territory. It is hoped that, taking inspiration from these three hospitals, other health care institutions of the UT too implement such practices to make the health sector shine in the whole country.
It goes without saying that J&K’s health sector despite not being fully up to the mark performed and is performing very valley during the Covid 19 pandemic. While the second wave created havoc all over the country, J&K being no exception, the health institutions and the medical fraternity really did a good job to tackle the crisis. The UT administration too deserves a pat for its Covid management and it was because of the coordinated efforts of health institutions, Covid warriors and the UT administration that patients in J&K didn’t die due to shortage of medical Oxygen, beds or requisite medicine. The personal efforts by the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha ensured that J&K health institutions have amply and even surplus supply of Oxygen. These steps didn’t only help save people lives but are undoubtedly going to help make the health sector more efficient and stable in future.
While everyone here is mindful of the great job done by our doctors, paramedical staff and others assigned the job to fight against the pandemic and save human lives, the best tributes to our medical fraternity would be that people don’t let their dedication and hard work go waste. For that, it is mandatory that people strictly follow the Covid related SOPs besides getting vaccinated. Health experts are cautioning that coming 100 days are very crucial on the pandemic front and the virus could again resurface with more ferocity (3rd wave). This is a biggest challenge that the people are face to face with. Our Covid warriors have done wonderful job during first and second wave of the pandemic; they themselves have suffered a lot – physically, emotionally, socially and psychologically – but have cared less about their personal lives and remained busy saving our lives. We owe them this much that we follow all the precautions and ensure that we will not allow third wave of the deadly pandemic to hit Jammu and Kashmir.