Corporate houses keen to invest in J&K Health sector: Dr Jitendra

NEW DELHI: Corporate houses from across the country are keen to invest in the Jammu & Kashmir Health sector and have been seeking further details and inputs about how best to go about with it.
This was disclosed here today by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh after he was approached by veteren Cardiologist of national repute Dr Upendra Kaul, popularly known as Dr U. Kaul, with a proposal to set up two Cardiology Clinics in Srinagar and Jammu respectively.
Dr. Jitendra Singh forwarded his proposal to the Union Territory government of Jammu & Kashmir and said that similar offers are also coming from other renowned Corporate Hospital Chains like Apollo, Medanta, Hindujas, etc who are feeling encouraged to come forward to invest in Jammu & Kashmir following the new constitutional arrangement brought in after 5th of August, 2019. Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir and his officers are also quite cooperative in their response, he said.
Dr. Jitendra Singh noted that Jammu & Kashmir is in dire need of optimum super speciality medical services, which could provide timely treatment to the needy patients and at the same time hold back the mass exodus of patients to other places like Chandigarh, Delhi and Amritsar. He said, particularly after 1990, with the migration of a large number of Specialist Doctors to metros outside Jammu & Kashmir, the deficiency of specialized medical care has been increasingly realised.
Later, revealing his plans for Jammu & Kashmir, Dr Upendra Kaul, who is also a son of the soil and Director of Gauri Heart Project, said that to begin with, a state-of-the-art Cardiac Out Patient Service will soon be started in two capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar. He said, while land has been acquired at Srinagar and the specialized Cardiac Clinic is scheduled to become operational from 10th of April this year, a similar Clinic is also planned for Jammu after the requisite piece of land becomes available.
Giving details, Dr. Kaul said, the Heart Clinics set up by his Group will be manned by full-time Cardiologists who would provide the facility of ECG, Tread Mill Test(TMT) Echocardiology, Doppler Studies, Holter Monitoring, Extended Recording of Rhythm, 24 hrs blood Pressure Monitoring, Head Uptilt test, etc. Wherever required, the Cardiologists stationed there will also have the option to seek superior consultancy from senior cardiologists at Delhi and other places through telemedicine. The charges from the patients will be very economical and cost-effective, he said.
At the same time, Dr Kaul said, his Group has started holding regular free heart treatment health camps will full fledged management facilities, ever-ready Ambulance service and tele-medicine contact with some of the leading Cardiologists across the country. So far, such camps have already been held at Jagti township Nagrota Jammu and in districts Ramban, Kupwara, Budgam, etc.