Choose between job and private practice
Rs. 120 cr being spent on State Cancer Institute
SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said the quality of services at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) should be improved so that people are not forced to go outside for treatments while warning the doctors against private practise.
He said the quality of services at the institute has to improve so that people do not have to go for referrals to New Delhi, Chandigarh or any other place outside the state for advanced treatment.
“There is a need for enhancing scope and facilities at the institute for providing super-speciality healthcare to the people,” he said.
“Once patients are referred to institutes outside the state, they have to spend a lot of money on their treatment which they cannot afford,” the chief minister said adding the institute will have to regulate referrals so that its performance as a premier institute in tertiary healthcare is not affected.
Chief Minister also issued clear-cut directions for strictly implementing the ban imposed on the private practice of doctors working in SKIMS. He said SKIMS doctors have to choose either between keeping their job or private practice and any violation of the directions will be viewed seriously.
The Chief Minister issued these instructions while chairing the Governing Body meeting of SKIMS, here today.
Minister for Finance, Dr. Haseeb A. Drabu, Minister for Health & Medical Education, Ch. Lal Singh, Minister of State for H&ME, Asiya Naqash, Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khanday, Principal Secretary, Planning & Development, B. R. Sharma, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Commissioner/Secretary. H&ME, Shantmanu, Director SKIMS, Dr. Shaukat Zargar, and other Members of the Governing Body attended the meeting.
Stressing on the need to make optimal use of infrastructure available at SKIMS, Mufti Sayeed called for periodical self-appraisals to assess the performance of the institute in terms of patient care.
Briefing the Chief Minister about upgrading infrastructure at the institute, Dr. Showkat Zargar said the Regional Cancer Centre at SKIMS, on the basis of its suitability and eligibility, has been upgraded to the level of State Cancer Institute and an amount of Rs. 120 crore as grant-in-aid has been approved by the Central Government. Rupees 47 crore has been sanctioned as first instalment that will be released to the institute shortly. The money will be utilized for procurement of PET Scan and Cyclotron machine which will improve quality of healthcare at the Centre, he said.
Informing the Chief Minister about the steps taken to provide better patient-care at 685-bedded SKIMS, the Director said over 8 lakh patients were treated at SKIMS in 2014 and between 2012 and 2014, 9 new departments have been added at the institute. The bed capacity of ICUs has also been increased while as 13,856 major surgeries have been performed in 2014, as compared to 12,242 in 2010, he said and added that around 2.8 crore laboratory investigations and 29,593 MRI and CT scans were performed at SKIMS last year.
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