‘Shortage of Gynecologists, obstetrics hits patients care in rural hospitals’

Srinagar—The Jammu and Kashmir government, over the years, has failed to address the shortage of obstetrics and gyne­cologists in rural hospitals.

Sources told Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the rural hos­pitals face not only shortage of female doctors, but are also un­derstaffed though the number of delivery cases is increasing with each passing day.

Sources said one of the reasons is that hospitals face staff short­age in obstetrics and gynecolo­gists is that young doctors avoid field. “It has been seen that there are two to three gynecologists in the district hospitals. The three specialists are not enough even to provide routine services. In case one of them is on leave or sick, the patient care is affected,” said one of the doctors posted in District Kupwara.

Sources told KNS that though the infrastructure has been im­proved in the hospitals, the short­age of specialist doctors is often a hurdle in the way of providing health services.

Officials in health department said that over the years, when the number of institutional de­liveries had increased manifold, there has not been a correspond­ing augmentation in human re­source in hospitals.

As per Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, institutional deliveries have increased 68,800 in 2008-09 to 93,491 in 2016-17.

Officials in the health depart­ment said that from 2005 to 2017, when the number of institutional deliveries and load on healthcare facilities had increased manifold, only few gynecologists’ posts have been created.

J&K is the only state where 50 percent MBBS seats are reserved for female candidates, a provision that had been brought in to im­prove availability of female doc­tors, especially in rural areas.

Sources told KNS that Jammu and Kashmir hospitals have been facing a shortage of over 10,000 doc­tors and paramedics despite dras­tic increase in footfall of patients.

“There are a total of 8,130 sanc­tioned posts of doctors, including gazetted posts in the Health De­partment, out of which 2,595 posts are lying vacant. Similarly, a total of 7,911 posts of paramedics and other staff against the sanctioned posts of 32,442 are still vacant, leaving the hospitals to work on crutches and making patients suf­fer,” said one of the officials in the health department.

He said that out of the vacant 2,595 posts of doctors, at least 1,173 posts of doctors were vacant in the medical education sector, while the health services and ISM were facing a shortfall of 1,422 posts of doctors.

Sources said that Department of Health and Medical Education has also failed to provide suffi­cient manpower in the Govern­ment Medical Colleges and Super Specialty Hospitals, which other­wise remain first priority for spe­cialized treatment for the patients from any part of the valley.

Senior faculty members of gyn­aecology said that government had failed to utilize the qualifica­tions of those doctors who stayed back in the Jammu and Kashmir. “Many of our pass-outs are work­ing as Assistant Surgeons. They are posted in PHCs (Public Health Centers) and are working as gener­al doctors,” said one of the doctors.

Meanwhile sources said that in absence of life support facilities and trained manpower, the aug­mentation in the ambulance fleet made by the government is proving to be a mere change of numbers.

“There are number of am­bulances deployed in different health institutions of the rural hospitals. Most of these ambu­lances are just for patient trans­port, not even fitted with basic life support (BLS) equipments like oxygen, suction machine, and emergency drugs,” sources maintained.

Most of these ambulances that ferry patients to the hospitals do not have doctors and paramedics to attend the patients, Sources added. (KNS)

Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now

MONTHLY	Rs 100
YEARLY	Rs 1000
LIFETIME	Rs 10000

CLICK FOR DETAILS