Working systematically to provide timely, affordable healthcare to all in J&K: Govt

Srinagar, Sept30: The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Friday said that the government is working systematically to provide suitable, affordable and timely medical care to all, officials said.
According to an official spokesperson, the Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar made these remarks while speaking at the three day surgical conference cum workshop of J&K Chapter of Association of Surgeons of India (JAKASI) organised by the Post Graduate Department of Surgery, GMC here.
“The government is working systematically to fulfill its primary objective of providing suitable, affordable and timely medical care to all including economically challenged people,” the advisor said.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor Bhatnagar mentioned that with the greater strides made in the upgradation of medical infrastructure, J&K was able to tackle the covid-19 pandemic successfully.
He made out that with the availability of quality medical fraternity coupled with state of the art infrastructure, the UT effectively provided better health care facilities to its citizens during those tough times.
Advisor Bhatnagar further mentioned that with the establishment of two AIIMS, seven new medical colleges, two Cancer Institutes and overall augmentation of medical facilities across the length and breadth of J&K, it is expected that patient care would reach greater quality and affordability besides resulting in timely services to people.
The Advisor observed that the waiting period for patients having need of surgeries or high-end medical tests should be minimal. He maintained that delays in a way amounts to denial of services to the poor.
He also stated that J&K has a huge potential of becoming the medical tourism destination in the country. He added that the government has roped in many of the big names in the private sector to invest here in the medical sector. He said that the land earmarked for two medi-cities in the twin cities is going to be a right step in this direction.
Advisor Bhatnagar expressed that there is an effort towards decentralization of health services in the UT. He said that a proper referral policy has worked better towards providing health services to people nearer to their homes. He reiterated that the Universal health coverage of all the citizens has been instrumental in saving the lives of many people and lessening the extra burden on their meagre resources.
Speaking on the significance of this workshop, Advisor Bhatnagar applauded the organizers for conducting such a workshop here. He said that such events provide unique opportunities to youngsters to learn thereby increasing their professional competence. He declared that the shortage of critical care specialists and technicians at all levels would also be addressed once all of our facilities gets completed here.
In her address, Principal GMC, Dr. Samia Rashid articulated that such workshops are the platforms to discuss and debate about the modern trends and challenges in medical sciences. She uttered that the past situation in the valley has been a difficult phase to which this medical college dealt in a very astute manner.
The Principal made out that the college has excelled a lot in every discipline and is continuously achieving new milestones. She revealed that the hospital is going to start the facility of Kidney and Liver transplantation soon. She enunciated that the college is going to retain its tag of the best health facility even in the times to come.
Professor G. Siddesh, President ASI in his remarks said that the organization gave an opportunity to all the training surgeons to learn from its online resource base during covid times when elective surgeries were not performed in hospitals. He urged all of them to continue reaping benefits of it free of charge.
Prof Siddesh also made out that with 30000 active members and 6000 associates, the Association of Surgeons of India is going to be the largest medical professional organization in the world and would surpass the American Medical Association in membership.
Others who spoke during the workshop include Dr Mufti Mehmood, HoD Surgery, GMC Srinagar; Dr Sanjay K Bhasin, Chairman JAKASI; Dr Zaffar Khanday, Secretary JAKASI and Dr Syed Javid Qadri, organiser of the Workshop.
The workshop was attended by members, dozens of retired doctors and Postgraduate students of the college.