*No strict compliance to order on free medicines list
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 21: As per the general principles, welfare of the public particularly in the hours of distress shall be the top most priority of any Government department. But this doesn’t carry any importance for those at the helm of affairs in the Health and Medical Education Department. This can be gauged from the non-serious approach towards two important issues brought to the fore by the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission (JKSIC).
One issue pertains to timely availability of blood to save human lives in different hospitals of the State and second relates to making people aware of the medicines which are available to them free of cost in the health institutions.
While dealing with an application under Right to Information Act in the month of November last year, the State Information Commission had noted with serious concern that people always run from pillar to post to get blood in case of emergencies mainly because the present system of blood collection and transfusion is not as effective and timely to save human life as is necessary.
The subject was of immense importance because everyday huge number of road accidents takes place in the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir and lives involved in these tragedies can only be saved with the timely availability of blood besides other facilities.
Moreover, it is generally observed that patients in critical conditions after travelling a long distance on reaching referred hospitals are informed that particular blood group is not available in that hospital and hence causes grave risk to the lives of the patients.
Keeping all these aspects in mind, the then Chief Information Commissioner, G R Sufi had directed the Health and Medical Education Department to devise a mechanism of interconnecting all the blood banks of the State into a single network so as to provide information vis-à-vis the availability of group wise blood in different hospitals of the State.
The Health and Medical Education Department was also directed that an expert panel be constituted within a period of one month to examine the issue in detail and put up system in place keeping in view the advantages of e-blood banks. The Commissioner Secretary of the Department was further asked to report compliance within a period of one month from the receipt of this order.
These directions were issued under Section 16(8)(9) of the J&K RTI Act, which makes it mandatory for the public authorities to adhere to the recommendations and directions given by the State Information Commission.
However, no seriousness has been shown towards implementation of the directives of the Information Commission despite the fact that the issue is of immense public importance and if implemented would help in saving numerous lives, official sources regretted, adding what to talk of e-blood bank even majority of the Health Units doesn’t provide information about blood group available therein, which otherwise is required under Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act.
They disclosed that even some experts like Director SKIMS had recommended establishment of blood bank on the pattern of Odisha on the ground that the same doesn’t involve much financial implication.
The State Information Commission in the month of April 2014 had also directed the Government to display list of all the medicines including life saving drugs available to the patients free of cost in all the health institutions across the State for the benefit of general public within a period of one month under intimation to the Commission.
“Though some hospitals have displayed the lists but majority of the health institutions have yet not shown adherence”, sources informed, adding “what to talk of health centres in urban areas there is no compliance to the directives of the Information Commission in rural and peripheral hospitals”.
The slackness towards implementing the directives of public interest clearly indicates that Government doesn’t want to perform its obligatory duty of helping the people in distress, sources further rued.
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