Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 12: Civil society members led by RTI activist Balvinder Singh today raised serious concerns over the operational readiness of newly established Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) in Jammu Province and sought urgent reforms in the existing healthcare system.
Addressing a press conference here today, Balvinder Singh said that despite the sanctioning of four new GMCs and the inauguration of AIIMS Jammu, healthcare delivery remains critically inadequate.
He said GMC Rajouri, established in 2016, admitted its first MBBS batch in 2019, while GMC Doda and GMC Kathua became operational in 2020. GMC Udhampur followed in 2023, and AIIMS Jammu was inaugurated on February 19, 2024. However, Singh lamented that the foundational vision laid by former Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2013, during the inauguration of the Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) Jammu, remains unrealized.
“Critical departments at SSH are still non-functional, and no dedicated cardiac emergency unit exists-leading to fatal delays for heart patients who must first be routed through GMC’s Emergency before reaching SSH,” he alleged.
Singh cited an RTI response from GMC Jammu showing a high volume of patient referrals from not only CHCs, PHCs, Sub District and District Hospitals but also from the new GMCs in Rajouri, Kathua, Doda, and Udhampur. This, he said, raises alarming questions about their functional capacity.
Joined by civil society members Manjeet Singh Bali, Anil Nargotra, Mahinder Sharma, Mahesh Kotwal, Manmohan Singh, T P Singh and Harmohinder Singh, Balvinder Singh urged the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Health Minister Sakina Itoo to take corrective measures. These include a ban on private practice by Government doctors, establishment of a cardiac emergency at SSH, introduction of inter-district GMC transfers, and formation of a high-level committee for clinical audits and referral accountability.
He warned that without urgent structural reforms, the promise of quality healthcare will remain a distant dream for Jammu residents.
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