Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Chief Spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq on Tuesday decried J&K government’s move of stripping Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) of its autonomous status.
Lamenting what he called an undermining of institutional working of a premier health care institution, conceptualized four decades back by Sher-e-Kashmir to tide over the sufferings of common people by providing specialized healthcare services, Tanvir said, “SKIMS has gone beyond delivering the state of art health care in producing skilled manpower including doctors, paramedics, and technicians. The institution was kept out of government control to ensure efficiency and fast deliverance of facilities,” adding, “Undermining the autonomy of SKIMS by bringing it under the administrative control of the health department also runs opposite to the government’s minimum government and maximum governance slogan.”
The institution, he further said has been met with a step-motherly treatment under the current setup. “The present dispensation has gone a step further by snatching its financial and operational autonomy. SKIMS is a deemed university and has been actively involved in imparting quality education and training to aspirants of the highest standard in different disciplines of medicine, surgery, non-clinical and laboratory fields. So how can it be treated at par with government medical colleges?”
“SKIMS offers post-doctoral (DM/M Ch), doctoral (Ph.D.), postgraduate (MD/MS), undergraduate (MBBS), BSc and MSc in laboratory fields, MSC And BSc in Nursing courses. It has produced scores of super specialists, hundreds of postgraduates in medicine and surgery, nursing and laboratory personnel, thus giving skilled personnel who have contributed in enhancing the health care delivery system in the valley and beyond,” he said.
“Autonomous models” to run big institutions like hospitals have proven more successful than other models. “It is much easier to take quick and right decisions, analyze weaknesses and bring about interdepartmental coordination in autonomously run institutions than having the files move from one table to another in the secretariat,” he added.
Demanding immediate rollback of the decision, Tanvir said that such stark irreverence of the incumbent government towards SKIMS is unacceptable. “Govt should stop toying with the institutional integrity and autonomy of the premier institute,” he added.
