Poor rural health due to concentration of medical facilities in cities: DAK

Set up proposed “medical colleges” in Baramulla and Anantnag

5 Dariya News (Rouf Pampori)

Srinagar 29-Jul-2015

while expressing grave concern over poor health status of rural residents, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said that the sad state of affairs in the rural health system is due to lack of proper medical facilities.President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said that rural people suffer from lack of health care access as majority of health infrastructure is concentrated in cities.“All the premier hospital of two medical colleges and Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences have been piled up in Srinagar city leaving rural poor in lurch. 75% of the health infrastructure including doctors and specialists and other health resources is concentrated in cities where only 27% of population lives,” he said.

Rural population constitutes 73% of total population and yet there is chronic lack of proper medical facilities, he added.The DAK president said the rural health centres are primitive without even basic facilities and the curative component in these centres is negligible in spite of a very high demand for such services in rural areas.“Availability of health care services is skewed towards urban residents who enjoy 66% of available hospital beds while the rural have access to just one-third of the beds. The ratio of rural bed vis-a-vis the population is 15 times lower than in urban area. There is acute shortage of doctors and specialists in rural areas and according to official report state has 1368 posts of doctors vacant. The ratio of rural population to doctors is six times lower than in urban areas,” he said.Ensuring proper equitable medical care as well as pre-emptive care facilities is mentioned regularly in planning but somehow the plans end being shelved and in the process rural poor become victims, the DAK president said.“If government is serious in giving relief to rural people it should start the approved medical colleges in Baramulla and Anantnag without any further delay,” he said. (KNS)