Srinagar, May 23 – Emphasising the need for specialised medicare facilities at tertiary, secondary and primary levels in Jammu & Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today called for reversal of brain drain in health sector and the need for return of non-resident J&K medicos from foreign countries to upgrade medical facilities across the State. He said the health sector formed the focused area in his development scheme and hoped coming years would witness a vastly changed health facility scenario in J&K.
Addressing a two-day consultative workshop on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in health sector at SKICC here today, the Chief Minister said that PPP could be utilised to motivate J&K doctors serving outside to return and help improve medical facilities here.
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister,. Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Commissioner/Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo and Founder Director, SKIMS, Dr. A. K. Nagpal were also present on the occasion. Eminent professors in the field of medicine, Prof. Udai Pareek, Dr. H. Sudhershan, Dr. S. K. Gupta, Dr. G. N. V. Ramana, Dr. G. M. La Forgia, Dr. A. Venkat Raman and Dr. R. Balasubramaniam will take part in the two-day technical sessions of the workshop.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minster said success or otherwise of any government is gauged by its performance in crucial sectors like health. “We cannot exaggerate figures on account of providing basic amenities to the people”, he said, adding government’s performance is easily judged on this count and provision of better health-care facilities in hospitals and other health centres is under the constant gaze of the public.
Referring to the expansion of the health sector in the State, Mr. Abdullah said unless a well-conceived consolidation programme is put in place, we cannot achieve the goal of providing modern facilities to the people across the State. “Massive infrastructure in the health sector is either completed or in pipeline. We have to now look for experts and doctors to man the hospitals and health institutions. The two complexes of super-specialty hospitals at Srinagar and Jammu are nearing completion, but the placement of specialists is yet to take place. Our focus should be on these”, he explained, and asked the participants of the workshop to suggest measures for utilizing “Triple P” concept in consolidation process.
The Chief Minister said it has been observed that doctors and specialists available in the State are reluctant to serve in remote and far-off areas like Gurez, Dachhan, Marwah, Warwan and Telil. He said the workshop should also discuss this aspect and come up with concrete suggestions. “The government is willing to implement suggestions of the workshop if these are realistic, precise and people-centric”, he added.
Chief Minister said there is greater scope for spending more funds in the health sector for improvement and up-gradation of facilities to strengthen the primary and secondary health institutions in districts and blocks. “This would decrease pressure on referral hospitals for treatment of routine cases and minor operations”, he said, adding presently around 10 per cent plan and non-plan funds are spent on health sector which could be enhanced to cater to the patient needs.
Mr. Abdullah said in order to reverse the brain-drain trend prevalent in health and medical education sector in the State, return of non-resident J&K doctors practicing outside the country has to be thought of and experts and specialists in the field motivated to come back. “Public Private Partnership can be utilized in this direction”, he said, calling upon the participants in the workshop to work out suggestions in this regard.
The Chief Minister said the Government was keen to utilize “Triple P” concept to strike balance between the need and availability in the health sector. “Patient-care and provision of sophisticated treatment to the ailing is the prime concern of the government”, he said, adding it wants genuine private partners who don’t have profit making as their motive, but those whose are keen on achieving extension of efficient, affordable, qualitative and accessible modern medical facilities to the people in the State.
Suggesting smaller workshops of eminent experts to work out reasonable and purposeful strategies to address health sector, the Chief Minister asked the participants to give concrete suggestions for achieving the goal of providing better health facilities to the people of the State.
Earlier, Minister for Health, Horticulture and Floriculture, Mr. Sham Lal Sharma lauded the keenness shown by Chief Minister for upgrading facilities in health institutions. He said right from the first day, Mr. Abdullah has evinced great interest in bringing about positive change in the sector for the benefit of general public. He said the idea for holding this workshop also came from him.
The Health Minister said the government hospitals and public health centres were functioning round-the-clock to cater to the needs of patients. “This sector needs to be strengthened and upgraded”, he said, adding placement of specialists and doctors in all the government institutions was the prime concern of the Health department.
Mr. Dulloo, in a power-point presentation, briefed the Chief Minister about the health indicators in the State and also gave a resume of expansion registered in the health sector since 1951. He said against 124 health institutions with 100 beds and 184 doctors in the State in 1951, there were 3,400 health institutions with 11,840 beds and 5,841 doctors today.
He identified shortages of human resource on account of specialists, trained nurses and unwillingness of doctors and paramedical staff to work in remote areas as areas of prime concern for the department.
Dr. Nagpal also gave a presentation and suggested areas where PPP could be utilized to upgrade health-care facilities.
Principal, GMC, Srinagar, Dr. Farida Mir, thanked the Chief Minister and the guests for attending the inaugural function. She hoped that the workshop would prove fruitful by way of giving valuable suggestions for utilizing PPP concept in a better way to achieve the objective of improving health care facilities.
Govt issues notification, amends Manual for jails in J&K
Srinagar, May 23 (Scoop News) – In order to facilitate female prisoners and their children, the State Government has amended the Manual for the superintendence and management of jails in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a notification issued by the Home Department, a child with its mother is not a prisoner and is entitled to food, shelter, medical care, clothing, education and recreational facilities as a matter of right.
Before sending a woman, who is pregnant to jail, it shall be ensured that the jail in question had the maximum basic facilities for child delivery as well as for providing prenatal and postnatal care for both mother and child, the notification states, adding the facilities of District Government Hospital must be availed. As far as possible, remedies shall be made available to pregnant female prisoner to have delivery outside the prison and where birth takes place in prison, only the name of the locality shall be recorded with the birth registration office.
Following the amendment, a female prisoner shall be allowed to keep her child till it attains the age of six years. Thereafter, the child shall be handed over to suitable surrogate as per the wishes of the mother or shall be sent to suitable institution run by the Social Welfare Department. The children admitted outside the jail shall be allowed to meet their mother in the jail once a week.
The child shall be given proper education and recreation opportunities and shall be kept in crèche or nursery, which shall be preferably be run outside the main prison premises. Every child who is allowed to remain with his/her mother in the jail shall be provided the facility of crèche/nursery and visitation by relatives and NGOs.
Under the amended Manual, the children will be provided diet as per medical norms and calorific requirements which will include cereals and millets, pulses, milk, roots and tubers, green leafy vegetables, fruits, sugar, fats and oils, with an increase in the scale of food as per their age.
The amendment adds that children in jails shall be provided adequate clothing as per local climatic requirements along with toys and pre-nursery coaching in jail.
Also Visit www.scoopnews,in