Asks district authorities to identify locations
By: Sameer Lone
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Government is all set to pace up the Union government’s much awaited proposal to sanction 775 health centers in the Union Territory.
The proposal was gathering dust and had seen no headway in the past elected governments.
With the present regime deciding to fast track development works, the proposal as per sources is all set to be taken up.
According to official sources, the proposal was gathering dust as the former regimes had turned a blind eye towards it.
The present regime has asked the district authorities to identify the locations to give final touch to the proposal.
The move is aimed to revamp the ailing health sector in Jammu and Kashmir, which according to sources, has still a shortage of over 1000 health centers.
“Based on the topography, population coverage and existing health centers, the State has shortage of some 1700 health centers,” reveal the official statistics of Health Department that are based on the Geo-Informatics System.
To cope up with the crisis, the government had sanctioned 775 health centers for Jammu and Kashmir. “But the proposal has seen no headway.
According to the statistics of the Health Department, Kashmir division lacks 42 Community Health Centres, 122 Primary Health Centres and 898 Sub-Centres, while the Jammu province has shortage of 22 Community health centers, 79 Primary Health Centers and 594 sub-centers.
The officials in the Health Department said that these new health centers require Rs. 552 crore. “The existing healthcare centers and even the tertiary care hospitals lack basic infrastructure,” they said.
Many officials in the Health Department said that it is not necessary to open all the health centers at the same time, if adequate funds aren’t available. “It would have been better to identify the areas where there is dire need of health centers, “they said.
A national survey also reveals that the patients in Kashmir receive the treatment far below than the national average.
