Minister for Health & Medical Education, Bali Bhagat today undertaken an extensive tour of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district to take stock of the medicare facilities in the health institutions.The Minister inspected various health institutions in the district including, the Sub-District Hospital at Bijbehara, Primary Health Centres at Verinag, Pahalgam, Kapran, Khiram Sihrama, Mattan and other adjoin areas.The Chief Medical Officer, Anantnag, Block Medical Officers of a couple of blocks also accompanied the Minister.The Minister issued instructions to the doctors and para-medical staff to discharge their duties pro-actively and serve the patients with extra zeal and dedication. He directed the concerned to maintain proper cleanliness in and around the institutions which is pre-requisite in ensuring the patient friendly environment. He directed for outsourcing the sanitation services to the Sulab or any other credible agency to ensure regular sanitation of wards, toilets and washrooms. He also directed for creating patient/attendant friendly facilities in the health institutions.
While interacting with the doctors, patients and attendants at these places, the Minister said that healthcare is the prime focus of the government and a slew of measures have been taken to upgrade the infrastructural and other facilities in all the health institutions across the state. He said Government has already announced the Free Drug Policy for all in the health institutions and directed the concerned to implement the same in letter and spirit. He also issued specific instructions to the doctors to prescribe all the available drugs to the patients and any violation to the standing instructions will be viewed seriously. He also directed the CMO to ensure that the details of the available drugs are prominently displayed in all the institutions for the information of the masses.The Minister also interacted with the locals and received the feedback regarding the availability of medicare facilities on ground. The people informed about the shortage of doctors, drugs, diagnostic facilities, ambulance service in the hospitals and requested the Minister to take appropriate steps to address these issues on priority. He immediately spoken to the Director Health Services, Kashmir and directed him to resolve the same on priority.