Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, May 29: Notwithstanding the claims of Government to establish more five Medical Colleges, two AIIMS type medical institutes and two Cancer Institutes in the State, the Government Medical College, Jammu and its Super Specialty Hospital are facing both shortage of faculty as well as infrastructure to make it fully and properly functional.
According to sources, the GMC as well as its super specialty hospital is presently facing the dearth of faculty as well as equipment and paramedical staff with the result the patients suffering from chronic ailments prefer to go for treatment outside the State or approach some private hospitals.
The worst position is in Neurology and Neuro-Surgery Departments of GMC’s Super-Specialty Hospital as both are without the proper faculty. The posts of Professor and Associate Professors are lying vacant in the Neuro Surgery besides the Department sans proper equipment for the treatment of patients. The Department is presently functioning with one Assistant Professor and a Lecturer who can’t run it and perform surgeries of chronic patients when the hospital has the entire Jammu region as its catchment area, sources added.
Sources said the patients with chronic ailments and needing surgeries are mostly referred to private institutions as the Department is unable to treat such patients as it neither has the qualified man power nor the equipment to treat them.
Due to lack of facilities in this prestigious Medical College of the State, the poor patients who are unable to get themselves treated in private hospitals or in Medical Colleges outside the State as they are unable to bear the expenses are left with no alternative but to come with a begging bowl on streets to seek public donations for their treatment, sources added.
This sordid state of affairs in the Medical College Jammu has put a question mark over the Government’s claims of establishing five more Medical Colleges, two AIIMS type institutes and two Cancer Institutes in the State when it is not able to provide the faculty to decades old Medical College in Jammu and make it properly functional.
Sources said that not only the Neuro Surgery in GMC which has become defunct but the condition of the Department of Neurology is also deteriorating as it sans both Professors, Associate Professors as well as Assistant Professors. The Department is being run by one junior consultant at present when the load is increasing day by day and patients are forced either to consult the Neurologists at their private clinics or go outside State for check up.
Sources in GMC said that except the Medicine and Surgery all other departments have shortage of staff and the authorities have now started appointing the consultants on contractual basis for one or two years which too is not a proper solution to the problem.
Sources said a department which is run by four members of faculty including a Professor, an Associate Professor, an Assistant Professor and a Lecturer can’t provide justice to patients if it is run by one or two faculty members.
The position is also almost same in the Surgical Oncology and Surgical Gastroenterology Departments of Super -Specialty Hospital.
Sources said the callousness of successive Governments towards the doctors having DM and MCH degrees has also forced them to migrate to other States by quitting their services in this State.
These doctors have no interest in serving their home State as after qualifying the MCH or DM degrees outside the State they are being posted in far-flung areas in sub district hospitals or health centers instead of GMCs of the State with the result they prefer to work outside in Medical Institutes or private Medical Colleges, sources added.
Government’s claims of providing medicare facilities at cheaper rates to the poor people of the State have totally proved hollow as a poor mother whose 14 year old daughter is suffering from brain tumor has no source for the operation of her daughter in private hospital or a Medical Institute outside the State and she has openly appealed for public donations and help.
The patient’s mother had approached the doctors in GMC for operation but she was categorically told that they have no proper staff for such an operation in the hospital and she has either to consult the Super Specialty Hospital of Mata Vaishno Devi or any other private institute. The family having no source of income to bear the huge expenses of such operation which amounts from Rs one lakh to One and half lakh made an appeal for public donations.
Admitting that the GMC faces shortage of doctors especially in Neurology, the Principal Medical College, Dr Zahid Geelani told Excelsior that posts of Professors and Associate Professors are lying vacant in both Neuro Surgery and Neurology Departments. He said besides the shortage of staff the theatre in Neurology is also not fully equipped with machinery and there is no experienced staff in the Department.
He said, however, the problem will be solved soon which, is the outcome of shifting of some departments from GMC to Super-Specialty Hospital of GMC. The problem was outcome of shifting of some departments to Superspecialty hospital which was done in a hurry instead of phased manner, he added.
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