Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 30: In a shocking revelation of figures, the Health Centers across Jammu and Kashmir falling under the Department of Health, have registered more number of patients than the total population of the State.
The figures apparently suggest that each one in the State is suffering from one ailment or the other and every third person has visited the Government Health Centers for a follow up check up, which is a rare possibility.
According to highly places sources, even the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was astonished on learning about figures, which were brought into his notice during the recently held meeting of the Task Force for a review of the Health and Medical Education Department.
The Chief Minister jeered over the inflated figures by pointing out that as per the statistics and norms followed at the national level, around 15 percent population is assumed to visit the hospitals, sources added.
On basis of this assumption at national level, around 40 lakh people could have visited the Health Centers in Jammu and Kashmir, that too if every third patient revisits two or three times for a follow up, sources explained.
However, the figures maintained by the State Health Department claim that 58 lakh people in access of Jammu Kashmir’s total population visited the OPDs of various Health Centers and Sub-centers across the State during the last financial year. Equally surprising is the fact that during the current year, these Health Centers have so far recorded patients in their OPDs almost equivalent to the State’s population, sources disclosed.
As per the figures available with the Excelsior, during the last year, a total of 1.78 crore people visited the OPDs of various Health Centers across the State, which has a total population of 1.20 crore. In the current year, a total of 1.17 crore people have so far got themselves checked for various ailments in these Centers.
Apart from this, seven lakh patients were admitted in these Health Centers. “But where are the beds?” sources pointed out alleging that the figures were manipulated for exaggeration only to meet certain interests.
Pertinent to mention that the Health policies and programmes are formulated on the basis of these statistics while the infrastructure and the bed capacity in the Government hospitals are also based on these data.
Total number of Health Centers in the State is 3008. Out of these, 1426 are in Jammu and 1582 in Kashmir. These centers have 1700 doctors in all.
On the other hand, Director Health Jammu, Dr Baljeet Singh Pathania sought to justify the figures and said, “around 40 percent of the total population is below 14 years of age and on an average, every child suffers four episodes of diarhoea and four to six episode of upper respiratory track while a pregnant woman makes about four to ten visits in the hospitals.”
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