JAMMU, Sept 23: A super-specialty hospital will be operational by this year’s end in winter capital, Jammu, Union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Sunday, the first such facility in the entire state.
Azad, who visited the under-construction hospital, set a schedule of activities for a time-bound operationalisation of this special facility, an official spokesperson said.
Final touches were being given to the logistics and other infrastructural activities, the health minister told a meeting attended by union and state health officials.
“While three Integrated Modular Operation Theatres have been put in place, remaining are in the pipeline. These, along with other diagnostic equipment like dialysis, are in the process of procurement and are expected to arrive here by October 15. Accordingly, these will be installed by year end,” the spokesperson quoted Azad as saying.
At least 819 posts of various categories of staff have been created for the hospital and the process for appointment of 214 para medics is underway. Several specialist doctors have already been deployed outside the state for getting expertise and specialised training, the health minister said.
“While 50 per cent specialists will be appointed locally, remaining 50 per cent shall be arranged from outside the State.”
Jammu and Kashmir figures much behind other states in terms of healthcare facilities and patients often have to travel outside for more specialised treatment.
Azad said there was a need for ensuring high standards in diagnostic equipment and the infrastructural edifice to provide relief to people from waiting for months in super specialties outside the state. He also suggested outsourcing of such diagnostic equipment if not readily available so that the patients are not made to venture out for getting the tests done.
“It will have to be made mandatory for outsourced units to strictly adhere to the rates fixed by the government for various tests,” he added.
Not only in terms of facilities, the super-specialty hospital is expected to cater to the aesthetic sense of the patients as well.
“Moreover, the minister also stressed on maintaining the “aesthetic grandeur” of the hospital and its peripheries,” the spokesperson added.
