Ladakh most neglected in health sector

Belying the State Government’s very oft made claims that it was committed towards the development of all the three regions of the State on parity and compatibility without any discrimination, we on the contrary, find Ladakh division grossly neglected and subjected to abject heedlessness in a vital area like the health sector. In fact , an extra mile was needed to be trodden by the State administration in case of Ladakh, looking to its  geographical difficulties and other peculiar limitations especially in harsh winter months when intra and inner mobility is found in a trying state.
The present dispensation owes an explanation as to why almost all the health care institutions in Ladakh are reeling under acute shortage of Doctors and para- medical staff. Most of those health centers, which had been upgraded many years back, are without medical officers and nursing staff. Structures, even with nice ambiance supposed to be hospitals and health institutions, can at  best be good buildings only and nothing beyond,  in case there were not adequate medical facilities available including the most important ones of posting of Doctors, nursing and technical staff and  other infrastructural requirements fulfilled.
Dishing out periodical official and political statements could no longer assuage the genuine feelings of the people who are deprived of medical facilities due to abject neglect and colossal apathy by the Government. While on the one hand , there is  insufficient number of hospitals and health centers,  for example in Leh with more than 45000 sq kms of area, on the other hand,  there was insufficient number of the medical staff provided there. For instance, entire Leh District has just one District Hospital, one Sub- District Hospital, one Community Health Centre and 14 primary health centers. Not only is the dispersal of such “facilities” across such a vast area abysmally insufficient but none of these has sanctioned man power to run them. People and their representatives have been intermittently voicing concern over these lacunae in the administrative system but of no avail.
Can there be any logic behind providing just 65 Doctors against the sanctioned strength of 121 in the health institutions at cumulative level? The main District Hospital of Leh has just 33 Doctors against a sanctioned strength of 49. It is obvious that in such state of affairs,  not only adequate and required medical attention could not be possible but even the quality would not be on expected lines as a few were required to attend on too many.
Could any senior Minister afford to have even a bird’s eye view of the position of health facilities in areas like Turtuk, Sakti, Diggar, Panamic, Bogdang, Chushul, Tangste, Themsigam and Bosgo etc and find out the yawning gap between political statements and praxis ?
The Government has not been in a position to provide sufficient Doctors even under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) not to speak of filling up of regular posts of Doctors. However, keeping in view the difficulties faced by the people, a proposal for upgrading the status of Primary Health Centers at  Khaltsi and Nyoma to the position of Sub District Hospitals along with creation of the requisite posts of the Doctors and  para- medical staff was submitted to the Finance Department last year but curiously,  the proposal was returned on the ground that the Finance Department would like to have an analysis of the existing health units.
It is not comprehensible that the need of conducting an analysis of all the existing health centres arose only following the demand for converging the two health centers under reference into a sub district hospital and not otherwise to see the overall position of where the entire health facilities stood and what was the condition of district and sub district hospitals to get a sense of what they required and how much fast from the Government. It would not be any difficult to visualize the condition in other vital areas looking to the condition in health sector in Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh and the Government should do something about it at the earliest which shall definitely be keenly watched by us .

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