Tasneem Kabir Medical Colleges
The status quo in the field of medicine in Jammu and Kashmir is such that the doctors find themselves overworked due to a very high patient-doctor ratio, being one of the lowest in India. The World Health Organisation recommends a ratio of 1:1000, while in J&K, it stands at 1:3866 (Central Board of Health Intelligence) – an abysmally sad picture. The picture is sadder, when considering that it is lower than even the average Indian doctor-patient ratio of 1:2000. This shortage of human resources then becomes the cause of multiple other problems.
First off, we find that due to the dearth, the posts that are available or created in the field of medicine go vacant, depriving the patients of the care they deserve. According to official figures released by the State government, more than a hundred posts of doctors are lying vacant in rural as well as urban areas, although the situation is starkly worse in rural localities. Also, given that the State government takes years to advertise for and fill the vacancies, there have been very few newly created posts despite the population of the Valley alone increasing from about 54 lakh to 70 lakh, according to the 2001 and 2011 Census respectively. Why this is such a problem is because the skewed doctor-patient ratio ends up leaving the attendee doctors overworked, hampering their ability to deliver the best possible care to the patient. This, in turn, sparks public resentment as well as clashes between doctors and patients. The clearest and the most brutal of manifestations of these resentments is the doctor being assaulted at the hands of the frustrated treatment-seekers. This is one of the reasons we saw the massive strikes and rallies that doctors in the state of West Bengal unleashed, to curb this regime of attacking the doctor. Who’s to say, such cases will not seep into the J&K state’s community?
Further, the shortage of medical staff often leaves the hospital administration in a fix. They find it hard to manage emergencies, particularly in rural areas in the event of an accident or a natural calamity, and they end up resorting to ad-hocism to stabilise the situation. According to reports, some district and sub-district hospitals are faring so poorly in this front that more than 50% of the posts lie vacant, and the staff is almost entirely a result of ad-hocism. This scarcity, say some officials, has also ended up forcing the Health Department to do away with the otherwise excellent decision of running primary health care centres in the day as well as night. This is really a cause for concern, for in a largely rural state, primary health care centres are paramount in delivering round the clock the medical facilities that are essential and otherwise inaccessible to the rural populace. Let’s consider Rajouri district for instance – out of the total of 235 doctors in the sub-district and other hospitals, only 87 are available at the hospital. Add to that the fact that out of the 106 posts of doctors created under the National Health Mission (NHM) in the district, only 88 doctors are available. This is just how grave the situation is in the state.
Fortunately for us all, in something of a relief to this dismal performance of the medical sector, the Medical Council of India (MCI) concluded its site inspections of the new medical colleges here as ‘satisfactorily’ and the state has received four new medical colleges. This means that MBBS aspirants in J&K may get added opportunity to secure a seat with the addition of 400 additional seats. This year onwards, these seats will be reflected in the seat matrix and BOPEE (Board of Professional Entrance Examinations) has been kept in loop for that. This has resulted in four hundred seats for the bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery (MBBS) in line to be filled in these newly established colleges, with each of them admitting 100 students during the admission process for the year 2019-2020.The four new medical colleges have been set up in Anantnag, Baramulla, Kathua and Rajouri districts of the state in an impressive move to democratize medical education and allow the entire population to reap its benefits This has taken the total number of MBBS seats in J&K to 900. What’s better is that 50% of these seats are reserved for females, in a bid to empower them.
With the ground set for allowing a greater number of capable individuals to lend their hand to those ailing and in pain, students have expressed gratitude over this move. This immense gratitude stems from the fact that earlier on, even those with the capability and the requisite score couldn’t fulfill their aspiration of serving the society as doctors, simply due to the unavailability of seats. It’s funny how there are many aspirants but not enough seats when it comes to getting the degree, but there are many vacancies but not enough individuals when it comes to working as doctors. Hopefully, with the establishment of the four new medical colleges, this anomaly will stand corrected, or at least alleviated. Moreover, to think that the Medical Council of India (MCI) approved the new establishments on the basis of how our older colleges were running, fills one with joy – joy that though not accessible to all so far, our medical education network has kept up its performance. We nothing but expect a similar running of the younger colleges, in the hope that these added assets may bring back the state’s doctor-patient ratio towards a balance and help nurture the relationship between the doctor and the one seeking guidance or treatment.
