Health, Medical Education Deptts in disarray courtesy bifurcation
Srinagar, June 17: While the vital healthcare sector continues to be in
disarray in the Valley, political voices Sunday held the bifurcation of
erstwhile Health and Medical Education Department responsible for the
“mess” and “mismanagement” in the critical area.
Leading the front is
former Health and Medical Education Minister and senior Congressman
Mangat Ram Sharma who said bifurcation was “responsible for the present
mismanagement” of the health sector.
“It (bifurcation of Health and
Medical Education Department) was a wrong decision. The old system was
best,” Sharma said. “There was a single control system and the results
were evident in the form of better coordination among different wings.”
The
Health and Medical Education Department (H&MED) was bifurcated into
Health Department, and Medical Education Department (MED), owing to
political reasons, after National Conference-Congress government took
over in 2008.
“How can you expect coordination between two
departments? The bifurcation has led to poor management and it is (now)
resulting in blame-game,” Sharma said.
National Conference’s
Additional General Secretary, Mustafa Kamaal said the “dual authority”
was certainly one of the reasons for the “situation.”
He said the
Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma and Medical Education Minister, RS Chib,
were “dedicated” persons but “perhaps they do not go well together and
have clash of interests.”
“Certainly, bifurcation of the department
is one of the reasons,” he said. But, he went on to add that the “poor”
health facility in the peripheries was responsible for high infant death
rate at GB Pant hospital.
What brought into the focus the
bifurcation of the H&MED was a report submitted by the MED to the
legislative panel over the infant deaths at GB Pant hospital.
It
virtually blamed the Health Department for around 500 infant deaths at
the GB Pant Children Hospital here. “Almost 95 percent of patients
admitted to the hospital come from the under-serviced rural belts as
there are chronically inadequate pediatric facilities available in such
areas,” the report said.
Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma told Greater
Kashmir that there is a concept of primary, secondary and tertiary
healthcare facilities. He said ‘critical’ patients get better treatment
in the tertiary care institutes, thus passing the buck on MED headed by
his party colleague, Chib.
President of the state Congress
Saif-ud-Din Soz said reform is a continuous process and it has to be
strengthened to meet the expectations of people. “Wherever necessary the
reforms must take place,” Soz said refusing to elaborate on it.
Experts argued that synchronization of the two departments had its own plus points.
“Under
common head, one always expects prompt action,” said a former
bureaucrat who was a former administrative head of the Health
Department.
A senior administrator at an institute here said the
decision-making has become the “casualty” due to separate functioning of
the Health and Medical Education departments and “procedural delays”
were often witnessed in case of procurements of any sorts and
policy-making.
“The two ministries only agree to disagree,” he said.
Substantiating his point he said the delay in framing up the drug policy
was only due to difference of opinion between the two ministers.
“There is even diverse opinion on hiring the procurement agency,” he
said.
“It (bifurcation) has resulted into interdependence and
overreaching which often leads to confusion and blame-game between the
two departments,” said another senior doctor.
Citing example he said
sometimes Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar requires service of
MD. “It requires approval from the Health Department and in case same
is not allowed the department suffers,” said the doctor. “If both the
department were under single control things will run smooth.”
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