Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Monday stressed the need for health sector reforms to make hospitals modern and ensure best service delivery to patients. He said Jammu and Kashmir is a difficult and geographically perse area where population in remote areas is sparsely distributed, as such, a well-defined health care system should be in place to cater to the needs of people in villages, towns and cities.Chairing the 6th meeting of Task Force on Health Sector Reforms here on Monday, the Chief Minister said that while super specialty hospitals are required to be further strengthened and modernized to provide latest treatment to the patients, there is equal need to enhance and upgrade health facilities in rural health centres so that pressure of patients in the city hospitals is reduced.
The Chief Minister said that the efforts to rope in private investment in health sector and encourage launch of joint ventures need to be further upgraded. He said availability of doctors and paramedics in hospitals is as important as modernization of health centres. He said these aspects should be given equal attention.The Chief Minister took brief on implementation of various decisions taken in earlier meetings of the Task Force and also got appraisal of the measures afoot to bring reforms in the health sector to make it more effective and delivering.The meeting was attended by Minister for Medical Education, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, various Principal Secretaries and Administrative Secretaries, senior officers and members of the Task Force.