Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Apr 14: Aiming to make health care delivery more efficient, authorities in Kashmir have started the process of identifying school buildings-which have been left vacant after the clubbing of the same owing to minimal enrolment-for the purpose of using them for the establishment of Government Health Care Centres.
In this regard, the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir (DHSK) has directed all the Chief Medical Officers (CMO) across Kashmir to constitute a team of officers which will assess the viability of these buildings situated in towns as well as far-flung areas to be used as Health care centres
“All the Chief Medical Officers are enjoined upon to constitute a team of officers, which need to include members from the planning side as well as an expert, who will have a physical inspection of school buildings as per the list of their respective districts and oversee suitability of these school buildings so that these buildings can be used as Government healthcare centres,” reads a circular which has been issued by the DHSK, adding the reports of the teams shall reach DHSK within 5 days.
As per details, Anantnag has got 18 such school buildings, Baramulla 68, Bandipora 3, Ganderbal 16, Kulgam 2, Kupwara 8, Pulwama 27, Shopian 32, Srinagar 42 and Budgam 26.
Officials told Excelsior that the Government had earlier carried out a process of clubbing the schools-primary ones-that had minimal enrolment and when the same was done, there were a number of buildings across Kashmir left vacant.
“Then the proposal came to see if these buildings could be used by the Health Department for setting up Healthcare Centres to increase patient care delivery and ensure that people get the necessary services at their doorsteps,” the officials said.
They said that the process has now begun with the establishment of the teams in the districts which will now see the viability of these buildings for their use as healthcare centres. “The process will take some time before anything could be decided on the same,” the officials said.
Among the list of around 250 such schools that have been identified across Kashmir, almost all the schools have zero enrolments while 95% of the same have been clubbed with other nearby schools.
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