Out of sanctioned 17 posts of consultants/doctors, 13 are vacant in both hospitals
Shyam Sood
Rajouri, Sept 12: The Darhal Health Block in Rajouri district provides health care facilities to the populace mostly residing in far-flung areas and Primary Health Center (PHC) at Thanamandi and Sub-district Hospital in Darhal town are two important hospitals in this block.
But, in PHC Thanamandi out of sanctioned 2 posts of Medical Officers ( MOs) MBBS from the regular side, one post is vacant while out of 2 sanctioned posts of MOs under National Health Mission (NHM), both the posts are lying vacant.
In the absence of doctors, the inhabitants of Thanamandi tehsil & adjoining areas facing difficulties in case of any medical emergency and alleged that many people have died for want of timely medical treatment.
An important Sub-District Hospital (SDH) at tehsil HQ in Darhal town is also facing an acute shortage of Consultants and Doctors and the available doctors are forced to refer most of the patients to Associated Hospital & Government medical College (AH&GMC) at Rajouri.
Out of sanctioned 7 posts of Medical Officers (MOs) in SDH Darhal, 6 are lying vacant, while out of four sanctioned posts of Consultants (physician, surgeon, paediatrician & gynaecologist) two (physician, surgeon) are vacant.
Out of two sanctioned posts of doctors under NHM, both are vacant in SDH Darhal.
“As the department and the people of the area facing problems due to shortage of consultants & doctors in SDH, the matter was raised by the prominent citizens of the Darhal and adjoining area before the Director Health Department, Dr. Saleem Ur Rehamn, who recently visited Darhal. He has assured an early action in this matter” said Dr. Sajjad Rashid Mirza, BMO, Darhal.
The BMO also informed that under his administration the hospital development fund (HDF) has increased from the earlier amount of Rs 20,000 to about Rs 80,000 at present because he has assured facilities like Ultra Sound & X-Ray which were not available due to the non-availability of technicians were not available before he took charge as BMO.
Dr. Mirza, BMO also informed that after the patients in PHC at Thanamandi were facing difficulties due to vacant posts of doctors, he on Monday issued an order & directed Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Khan (looking after the post of Consultant physician) posted in SDH Darhal to attend one-day OPD at PHC Thananamandi on every Saturday.
In this connection a deputation of prominent citizens of Thanamandi met with Dr. Hamid Zargar, CMO and the CMO issued directions to BMO Darhal for one-day OPD in the interest of patient health care.
