15 new Dermatologists per year but Govt fails to utilize their services
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, June 14: Notwithstanding the rise in skin diseases in general and leprosy as well as HIV in particular, the Health & Medical Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory has failed to create adequate posts of Consultant Dermatologists during the past many years.
For all the 20 District Hospitals across the Union Territory, which cater more than 75 percent population of J&K, there are only five sanctioned posts of Dermatology Consultants. For the district hospitals in Jammu province, there are only three sanctioned posts of Consultant Dermatologists while for Kashmir division, number of the sanctioned posts is two.
The posts of Consultant Dermatologist at district level were created and sanctioned decades ago when Post Graduation in this specialty was not available in the erstwhile State.
Even as the Post Graduation course in the specialty is now being done in all the premier Government Medical Colleges of J&K, including GMC Jammu, GMC Srinagar and SKIMS while 15 new Dermatologists are produced every year in the UT, the Government has failed to utilize their services in the specialized field because of no creation of the posts.
Pertinent to mention that lakhs of rupees from the taxpayers money are being spent by the Government on training of these postgraduates in Medical but their services in the specialized field are not being used for general public owing to no creation of the Consultant posts.
As these trained specialists have no option other than to join private sector, poor and needy patients from rural and remote pockets of Jammu and Kashmir have to travel long distances to Government Medical College Jammu or Srinagar for treatment of their skin diseases incurring huge expenses and inconvenience.
Besides Gandhi Nagar and Srinagar Hospitals, only DH Poonch, DH Ramban and DH Anantnag have one each post of B Grade Specialist in Dermatology.
Many a times, the matter was brought into the notice of those at the helm of affairs in the Health and Medical Education Department but authorities didn’t pay any serious attention towards this burning issue.
Now when the UT Government has constituted the Accelerated Recruitment Committee for preliminary proposals for recruitment in Health and Medical Education Department by creating 3000 vacancies, people are hopeful that posts of B Grade Specialists in Dermatology would be created for all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The creation of posts of B Grade Specialists in Dermatology in the District Hospitals will ensure that services of these trained specialists are utilized for general masses besides greatly helping needy patients in rural belts to avail the medical service for the particular disease without visiting the capital cities.
When contacted, Financial Commissioner, Health & Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo admitted that no new posts of B Grade Specialists in Dermatology were created in District Hospitals since long and the matter is likely to be positively considered while finalizing proposal for fresh recruitment of 950 Medical Officers in Health Department by the Accelerated Recruitment Committee.
We have also created posts of Dermatologists along with full fledged Departments in the newly opened Government Medical Colleges at Rajouri and Kathua, which will help the people in these areas to avail the service of skin specialists, he added.
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