The residents of this border district are suffering from the last six months due to the absence of Surgeon Specialist, Gynaecologist and Child Specialist at the sub-district hospital (SDH).According to reports, the posts of Surgeon Specialist and Gynecologist are lying vacant for last seven months while the post of Child Specialist has not been filled from the last two years.“Against the 30 sanctioned posts of Assistant Surgeon, 23 are vacant, against 8 posts of Dental Surgeon 5 are vacant, against 7 posts of Community Health officer 5 are vacant, out of 7 posts of Health educator 2 are vacant, against 2 posts of Sanitary Inspector 1 is vacant, against 7 posts of Junior Lab Technician of pharmacist 3 are vacant, out of 27 posts of Pharmacist 9 are vacant while 8 posts of Senior Pharmacist 3 are vacant,” sources told GNS.
Moreover, they said, against the total sanction posts of 329 (under NRHM), only 248 are filled in the hospital while remaining 81 posts are lying vacant for quite long time.“In this situation people of Mendhar and its outskirts are suffering badly due to which patients are not getting proper treatment and are forced to go to District Hospital Poonch and District Hospital Rajouri for their treatment, sources said, adding: “the worst sufferers are women, as in the absence of Gynaecologist and Surgeon Specialist, many delivery cases are either referred to District Hospital Rajouri or District Hospital Poonch, which are quite far.”The Block Medical Officer, Mendhar, Dr Parvez Ahmed Khan admitted shortage of doctors and other staff in the hospital. He said, “It is true, there are many crucial posts vacant in the hospital and the people are suffering due to this. Government should pay attention to this and take immediate steps to fill all these vacant posts, so that proper and timely treatment could be given to the needy patients”.BMO also said that a 32 KV Generator Set is a burning demand of the hospital so that various machineries like ECG, X-Ray and Ultrasound of the Hospital could be operated in case of power failure and patients could be given immediate treatment. (GNS)