Mahesh Chander
We, the people of J&K, have encountered two reports in the local print media about Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Super Specialty Hospital, the first one relates to an achievement of emerging as a center of excellence in oncology and the second one shows discriminated treatment of patients by the hospital. This hospital owned and managed by an autonomous organization falls in the category of private hospitals and it is only health care center of repute and hope for the residents of J&K especially for advance treatments of serious ailments at comparable cost. This hospital enjoys an edge over other Government run hospitals and other medical institutes owing to well-maintained patient friendly environment coupled with reputed medical professionals on its roster. It therefore becomes preferred choice for customers who can either afford to pay or prevail over the management of the Hospital on account of their position in the society either as high Government officials or Politicians.
At the same time, it is expected that hospital administration must honor their commitment towards people below poverty line by providing some percentage of beds for BPL patients. Latest incidents of discrimination reported by local print and visual media indicate towards selective treatment of bigwigs like senior politicians, bureaucrats over others. This hospital is providing contractual treatment as empaneled hospital to the employees of many organizations like CGHS, ECHS, ESIC and J&K Government employees. It is also functioning as one of COVID treatment center with limited bed capacity and has gained status of preferred indoor facility for patients from affordable social strata. Rising number of patients of COVID-19 have challenged the Government run health care system that has almost crippled and its visible inability to provide satisfactory health care service created a sense of insecurity amongst patients to knock the door of this elite hospital. In a recent case of a Contractual Safai Karmchari of Jammu Municipal Corporation being treated as a referred patient through ESIC for dialysis, it is reported that he has been asked to shift to government Medical College when tested positive for COVID-19 which is deplorable and it clearly shows the selective treatment corresponding to the status of the patient.
No doubt, the ongoing epidemic has posed unprecedented challenge to existing health care system and it demands an organized method to handle all patients with absolute professional manner as per the ethos of the medical profession that allows no discrimination amongst patients other than the severity of the disease and involved urgency to save life. All national assets whether public or private are merged to fight a war against an enemy whenever the country is pushed to war and in the similar manner any disaster whether natural or manmade is fought jointly under the provisions of National Disaster Management Act. It is the duty of the government or local state administration to take over all such facilities and control their day to day functioning with optimum utilization in the larger interest of the people of the state. We have time and again been informed about the availability of hospitals with detailed bed capacity for COVID 19 across the state but such discriminated treatment of patients exposes ground reality.
The elite hospital in the referred case actually belongs to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and not to any private person or corporate. It therefore extends services not merely on commercial considerations like any other corporate hospital and functions under the management of Shrine Board under the chairmanship of LG of the UT of JK. Besides this, in the present circumstances when the entire world is facing challenge of COVID 19, it is emergent on the part of local administration to strengthen our existing public health care system not only to render medical treatment to affected patients but create an information campaign to educate general masses about deadly virus. Another cause of concern for the society at large emerges from the preferential selection of facilities like SMVD Hospital by prominent people like civil servants and political leaders who are in fact required to improve existing government facilities to fight the challenge of such medical disaster. It is really discouraging to confront such heart wrenching incidents where marginalized members of the society are denied their right merely to accommodate powerful and blessed people.
We, the people of JK, do make an earnest plea to the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to direct concerned officials of his administration for ensuring fairness in dispensing justice in this regard leaving no scope for public annoyance and animosities erupting out of such discriminations, let alone the rule of law prevail. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
The author is WgCdr (Retd)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel