Jammu, Oct 4: J&K Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Health Cell co-convener, Dr Varinder Sharma has expressed serious concern over the acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff across Government Medical Colleges GMCs and other government hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Sharma said hospitals are not ordinary departments that can function with a skeleton staff, as healthcare is a matter of life and death, 365 days a year, round the clock. He raised serious concern over inadequate staff in newly established GMCs which serve little purpose in reality.
With over 13,000 posts lying vacant in GMCs and other hospitals across the Union Territory, he said the existing staff was stretched beyond imagination and permissible limits, often leading to friction between patients and healthcare workers — a situation, he noted, that was entirely beyond the control of doctors and paramedical staff.
Referring to disclosures made by the Health Minister in the Legislative Assembly, Dr Sharma additionally highlighted the case of Jammu’s Bone and Joint Hospital, being run largely on the strength of nearly 300 staff deputed from GMC Jammu.
He also stressed the urgent need to fill all vacant posts and to increase the maternity and paediatrics staff at SMGS Hospital, Jammu, pointing out that patient footfall has risen manifold.
Dr Sharma called for an urgent evaluation of patient footfall, workload and staff strength, particularly at GMC Jammu, which he said remains overburdened with no noticeable augmentation of staff compared to GMC Srinagar, despite the additional winter migration load it bears. He also called for setting up an emergency at Super Speciality Hospital. He appealed to the government to look into the healthcare issues of the region in totality, so that the public receives adequate and timely healthcare facilities.
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