During a recent meeting with the senior officials of health department and the principals of Government Medical Colleges, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha directed all the stakeholders to focus on the goal of ‘Health for All’ and ensure efficient, effective and equitable healthcare services. He directed the officials to conduct an analysis of the facilities extended to the patients in hospitals and health centres and work out a strategy to further improve the functioning of the healthcare facilities. He also directed for increasing the utilization of AB-PMJAY–SEHAT cards in government-run hospitals, besides streamlining the procurement of medicines and online appointments in the hospitals.
This goes without saying that from past few years, the UT administration has been working tirelessly to ensure robust and efficient health services in Jammu and Kashmir. However, there are some issues that confront the populace here on this front and need to be tackled properly.
Of late medical profession has turned into a virtual gold mine for all those who are associated with it. So huge is the money in this field that not only the trained doctors but even the semiliterate quacks too are amassing wealth by either posing as doctors or simply offering some other supplementary services like clinical laboratories, diagnostic centres, X-ray clinics and the like. No wonder that a huge industry has sprung up in the Valley to prey upon the already distressed lot. Now see the irony, these ‘medical shops’ (read private clinics and diagnostic centres or nursing homes and hospitals) have spread their tentacles everywhere so much so that it has become practically impossible for the people here to conceive of a healthy life without paying some ransom to the Kashmir’s medical mafia.
Although the Directorate of Health Services here is well aware of the machinations of this mafia, yet they prefer not to do much about it for the sheer reason that the wealth amassed by these private practitioners has brought them huge clout and influence. No wonder that people of Kashmir, particularly the chunk already troubled and distressed by disease, have been left to the mercy of the greedy diagnostic centres, clinical labs and so-called medical institutes and hospitals. At places doctors themselves have put together some big medical centres where besides the doctors’ consultation so many other facilities like lab and diagnostic tests are offered under the same roof. In most cases, these so-called facilities are add-ons for ensuring more and more easy income for the owners.
Prime Minister’s Jan Arogya Yojna (PM-JAY) Sehat is a revolutionary step taken by the Union Government wherein people in need get free treatment upto Rs 5 lakhs, this scheme too is being exploited for the monetary benefit of a few. The doctors, who are on government’s pay roll, direct their patients to the clinics where they practice privately so that these clinics get that money.
Interestingly, on paper many of these medical facilities are registered as ‘trusts’ and as such feign to be run as charities. But fact of the matter is that these are lucrative business ventures of a powerful few. There is nothing for the ailing patients here except for those who are willing to turn a blind eye to the cheating by these facilities in the name of medical care and help. While most of the facilities remain grossly mismanaged as far as the patient-care and comfort is concerned, what makes the matters worse is that the staff too are ill-mannered and lack even in basic human niceties like talking pleasantly with the visiting patients and their attendants.
While focussing to improve the health sector in J&K, it is time for the government to wake up and initiate action against these white-collared robbers who are simply sucking at the bleeding wounds of distressed and diseased Kashmir.
