Budgam, Apr 09: Beerwah residents in central Kashmir’s Budgam have urged health department to relocate the doctors who used to work at Sub-District Hospital Beerwah.
Farooq Ahmad Wani, President of the Traders Federation of Beerwah, told The Rising Kashmir that the sub-district hospital in Beerwah is currently facing a shortage of medical officers and other paramedical staff.
The hospital have 07 sanctioned posts of the Medical officers out of which 3 posts of the Medical officers is vacant and one post of the Medical officers which especially deals with non-communicable diseases ( NCD) is still vacant in the hospital. The vacant status of these posts for the past few years in the hospital has also affected the health care problems in SDH Beerwah.
“This is the only Hospital in the Sub division Beerwah which caters 125 villages having population more than 2.5 Lakh of people in these villages. On a daily basis, more than 400–500 patients from these 125 villages come for medical check-ups. “Besides, the hospital also performs surgeries on a daily basis,” Wani said.
He said that the doctors from the sub-district hospital in Beerwah have been assigned additional duties in other places by the health department, due to which the patients are facing a lot of problems in the absence of proper doctors in the OPD and IPD sections of the hospital.
“The New Type of Primary Health (NTPHC) in Lalpora village is without a doctor, as the doctor of the NTPHC has sent to USG Refresher Training at JLNM Rainwari Srinagar since the month of October 2022. “One of the doctors is fully running the USG Section of the SDH Beerwah; this doctor has been asked to perform one day of duty in the sub-hospital Chadoora,” Wani said.
He said that one dental surgeon from the sub-district hospital in Beerwah has also been attached to the Chief Medical Office in Srinagar. The gynaecologist has also been asked to perform his night duties at SDH Chadoora. Another medical officer from PHC Aripathan has also been attached at Srinagar Airport. One sweeper has been transferred to Controller Stores in Srinagar.
Zubaida Bano, one of the patients, said that the sub-district hospital in Beerwah did not have a proper doctor as per government criteria. Assigning the duties of the doctor to other places will directly affect the health care of the patients.
Presently, the Medical Block Beerwah already has eight health centres where doctors are only performing their one day duties during the week, as they have to perform the other duties in the SDH Beerwah for the smooth functioning of the hospital. “Assigning the additional duties to the doctor in other places will also impact the eight health centres that are coming under the sub-district hospital in Beerwah,” Bano said.
Dr. Ayoub Fateh Khan, Chief Medical Officer of Budgam, said that for the smooth functioning of the health sectors, the doctors from the SDH Beerwah have been asked to perform their additional duties in other places on a temporary basis.
“This is a makeshift arrangement on a temporary basis, where doctors from other hospitals can be assigned additional duties for some time. We have already sent the lists of vacant posts to the higher officials. So, these vacant posts in the hospitals will also get filled,” Dr Khan said.
