Mohd.Reyaz Malik
The once popular Ghulam Ahmad Ganai Memorial Sub-District Hospital in the border district of Mandi, Poonch which in 2011 catered to almost 80 thousand and now in 2017 is meant to cater to approx. one and half million people seems to be moving towards closure.
A woman relative of 37-year-old Haji Mohammad Rafiq suffered a serious injury to her foot at ten o’clock in the morning. Haji Rafiq took her to the sub-district hospital at Mandi. They reached the hospital at 6.00 in the evening, where there was no orthopedic doctor and the X-ray machine was not working. The doctor who was present at the hospital advised Rafiq to take her toPoonch district hospital as soon as possible. They reached the district hospital around 8.00 p.m. where the doctors attended to her, properly cleaning the wound and bandaging the foot before discharging her.
No one wants to give any attention to the Mandi sub-district hospital. Neither are the authorities ready to take up the responsibility nor are the politicians paying any attention.
The Block Medical Officer deployed in the hospital and has been here for the last two years says, “Now the situation is that only two medical officers are working here, there is a severe shortage of staff, five of the B Grade Medical Officers, five of the specialists, ten of the nursing staff, and eight posts of MPW are vacant.Due to the lack of staff, I do the ultrasound on my own. A similar situation prevails in the health centres of Mandi like Sawziya sub-center, Bidar primary health center, Arai sub-centers, and other sub-centers which are running without any doctors.
In this regard, the Block Medical Officer says, “The staff posted here work very hard even when the staff is inadequate.The people are facing difficulties because it is hard to get all the work done by a limited number of staff. In fact it is rather impossible”.
According to local people, “DC Poonch Tariq Ahmad Zargar (KAS), Shah Mohd.Tantray, MLA of Haveli, Akram Chaudhary MLA Surankot,MLC Dr. Shahnaz Ganai, former MLC Jahangir Hossain Mir, former MLC Sheeshpal Sharma and present MLC Pardeep Sharma, the Tehsildar of Mandi, etc., all have been informed about this problem but no one has paid any attention.”
If fact, as reported in this paper, Dr Shehnaz Ganai MLC, had visited the Hospital on 25th May this year and inspected the construction of the additional block. Dr Ganai also took stock of the health care facilities being provided to the patients in the Hospital. She had interacted with the patients and their attendants and inquired about the Medicare facilities being provided to them in the hospital. Dr Ganai had stressed upon proper sanitation in and around the hospital, and directed the officials to maintain cleanliness in the Hospital. After her visit the work on the construction was re-started and two new doctors appointed almost immediately.
Shamim Ahmad Ganai, President of the Mandi Board of Trade, Sarpanch Tariq Manzoor Choudhari of Mandi, Social worker Dr. Ghulam Abbas Hamdani expressed regret over the plight of this hospital in the presence of Tehsildar Mandi at the office of Block Medical Officer, Mandi, “State Health Minister Bali Bhagat is talking about the improvement of the health centers of the whole state and of meeting the shortage of staff. He is making announcements and promises to provide better facilities so that patients do not have to face any kind of problems at the health centers and hospitals. But seeing the condition of the sub-district hospital in Mandi, it seems that these promises and declarations in reality have no connection”. He said that, “two years ago there was a discussion with the hospital management committee about the difficulties and problems of the hospital here. But now our political representatives come suddenly and meet some of the staff and others who are present in the hospital. The result of which is that there are only two doctors left in the sub-district hospital for a population of a million people. Apart from the two doctors there is no medical officer and no female doctor”.
The question here is that when the hospital itself is suffering from bad health and has become like a patient, then who will take care of the health of the people living on the border? It is important to take care of the health of these people so that we can keep our border safe by keeping them healthy.
(Charkha Features)
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