In a developing democracy, political leaders have to keep their voters in a happy mood. Backward and illiterate people are rarely mindful of making any distinction between a genuine and a fake leader. Public figures in developing democracies have very little qualms of conscience. They make announcement of different developmental schemes to be floated if their party is returned to power. More often than not, such promises and commitments never materialize or even if they do materialize, it takes a long time. Making off hand commitments of development is the bane of our political culture.
Generally speaking major national level political parties do not like their members make any direct commitment to the masses of people. Individual members are not desired to reflect on policy matters in public. But notwithstanding these desk book instructions for all mainstream political party activists, their nominated candidates bravely make public commitments unmindful of the fact whether such commitments are possible within a given period of time.
Let us be precise. Long time back, legislative members of Rajouri district constituencies made a commitment to the people of bringing a full-fledged district level hospital to Rajouri and then sub-district hospitals for other major towns in the district including Darhal, Kalakot and Budhal. A 250-bed hospital building has come up in Rajouri but major requirements of a district hospital are wanting there. A hospital is not just the building and its theaters and corridors and clinical rooms. A hospital means all this plus the most essential item and that is of qualified and experienced doctors, functional modern hospital equipment, adequate Para-medical staff and efficient services. Except for the building or space, Rajouri District Hospital is lacking every other thing including the most important factor of well qualified and experienced physicians and surgeons. But the ground condition of services when recounted is just sordid and dismally hopeless. Not only is the District Hospital of Rajouri horribly under-staffed, the manpower situation in the sub-district hospitals is worse. In District Hospital Rajouri, five sanctioned posts of Medical Officers/ Assistant Surgeons are lying vacant. Two posts of Anesthetics have also remained vacant. Out of the three posts of Physicians sanctioned, only one is posted while two posts are lying vacant. Out of the total sanctioned strength of doctors, the hospital is functioning with hardly 40 per cent staff. It has to be noted that the hospital is supposed to serve a population of six lakh population of the district besides the patients coming from Poonch district as well. . One can imagine how much crowded the hospital is with patients and their attendants…Several radio diagnostic machines like CT scan and Ultra Sound machines are lying idle because there is no Radiologist despite the fact that two posts of Radiologists stand sanctioned. There are two sanctioned posts of Radiologists (junior and senior), but not even single one is in place. This is other than the shortages of skilled staff.
Condition in sub-district hospitals of Darhal and Kalakot is still worse. In Darhal against 16 sanctioned posts only two doctors are posted in the hospital. They have to manage everything including the OPD and Emergency. The misfortune of this sub-hospital is that even the premises of the hospital lack the compound wall and the space being open is easily trespassed by human beings and beasts. Block Medical Officer had no reservation in saying that 85 per cent posts of doctors are lying vacant in the Block. The case of Kalakot sub-district hospital is still worse. Against the sanctioned strength of 16 only two doctors are managing the hospital. How can they cope with the rush of patients> It has been found that many sophisticated machines needed in a medical hospital are lying unused for want of technical personnel. Dental hospital is in no better a condition.
The question is that why does not the Government take serious steps to overcome the shortcoming of various kinds in these rural hospitals. When the Government says that it is committed to improving the lot of rural people it is desirable that special attention is paid to the problems of running these sub-district or district level hospitals. Why does the Health Department concentrate only on urban medical units and neglect the rural units? Whenever authorities of health services are contacted the patent answer is that they are at work and soon doctors and specialists and skilled technicians would be deputed. But they cannot say when the staff will be deputed. This sordid situation has to come to an end. Health Department must shun its lethargy and easy going attitude. Medical services are among essential services and people cannot be deprived of facilities that government has to provide them.
While we are speaking about discrepancies in the Health Department, it is pertinent to state that the state of negligence is to the extent that in the GMC Jammu one of the two lifts that carry patients to upper levels is totally dysfunctional since a long time and the one that is in use is overworked to the extent that it may also collapse some day. Even this minor repair is not undertaken. That speaks for callousness of the Health Department.
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