Hospitals and facilities

Over the years, health care facilities in the UT have improved considerably but it has still a long distance to cover. It is the rural areas that present a grim picture despite establishing new district hospitals, sub district hospitals and primary health care centres. The governments have invested in infrastructures but many facilities still remain out of reach to the patients. Even basic equipments have been said as not provided in the health care centres in rural areas. Lack of facilities in rural areas has been forcing patients to seek treatment in specialty hospitals in the twin cities. The present government has taken interest in keeping doctors rotating with transfers and postings so that quality health care services are provided in the nook and corner of the UT. Still it needs to do more on equipping the hospitals particularly the sub district hospitals and primary health care services. Although government-run hospitals are classified primarily on the basis of their being primary, peripheral and tertiary care hospitals with the last being specialty hospitals, one of the yardsticks continues to be hospital beds. This makes sense because all tertiary hospitals are overburdened with large influx of patients on daily basis. Extra beds, therefore, is always a welcome step. But with space limitation, government has been encouraging establishing new hospital compounds. What is unfortunate is that it is time consuming and usually takes years to make new hospitals fully functional. Government may add hospitals or increase extra-bed capacity, but unless some work is done to make hospitals as real health centers, the expectations won’t be fully met.  Further, CT scan and MRI machines are still not provided in many government hospitals. For tests patients have to go to private labs and hospitals which not only affect the cost of treatment but also becomes a pain as they have to shift between the hospitals and laboratories. Also, there is the issue of trauma centres with a surge in accidental deaths. More trauma centres need to be established in existing hospitals at district and sub district levels. One more concern is the security of the medicos in the wake of attacks and harassment to the hospital staff. In the past, there have been a number of cases when doctors or paramedical staff has had altercations with the patients’ attendants. While the staff has been accused of highhandedness, the staff has refuted such claims and said that strict hospital procedures are not followed by the attendants which increase the health risks to patients. Some security arrangement has to be made so that doctors and hospital staff are not unnecessarily harassed and prevented from doing their duty freely. The government must commit to improving condition of not only tertiary care hospitals but also to district, sub district and primary health care centers in the UT.