Rural patients cover long distances for healthcare

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 30

The primary healthcare in the state continues to be on sick bed. A primary health centre (PHC) in the state covers an average 592 sq km against an average of 139, while a community health centre (CHC) covers an area of 2,766 sq km in rural belts against the national average of 780.

Similarly, a sub-centre, which is the peripheral outpost of the existing healthcare system, caters to a rural area of 117 sq km in the state against the national average of just 21.47 sq km.

These figures are in contrast to the state government’s claims that significant improvement had been made in primary healthcare system over the years.

The irony of the fact is that J&K had notched up country’s top award in the primary health sector in 2013.

A senior officer of the Health Department wishing anonymity said, “We can easily claim that we have sufficient number of health institutions in the state, but patients are still forced to cover a long distance to avail medicare. This is the major issue confronting J&K.”

He, however, candidly admitted the department has not been to provide healthcare facility to the people at “nearest place” to their residences so far. “It is still a major cause of concern for us that the people cover a long distance, mostly on foot, in the rural areas to avail the medical treatment. The low population density and large geographical area are the main causes for the problem,” the officer said.

Sources said the average radial distance covered by a sub-centre in J&K is 6.11 km against the national average of 2.61, while it is 13.72 km in case of a PHC against the national average of 6.66. For CHC, it is 29.67 sq km in the state as compared to 15.66 sq km at the national level.

Besides two government medical colleges, maternity and children hospitals in two capital cities viz Jammu and Srinagar, there are 22 district hospitals, 82 community health centres — 32 in Jammu, 44 in Kashmir and 6 in Ladakh, 646 PHCs and 1428 sub-centres across J&K.

Geographically, J&K has a total area of 2.22 sq km and its total population is 1.25 crore. The Jammu region has an area of 26,293 sq km while the Valley caters to about 15,948 sq km. Ladakh constitutes two-third of the geographical area of J&K. The region spreads over a total geographical area of 1.73 lakh sq km, of which 1.16 lakh sq km is under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China.

Yash Pal Sharma, Director, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), J&K, said the Union government had sanctioned 826 new sub-centres for the state and it would help the department to enhance health facilities at far-off places.

“Our population is sparsely located in Ladakh region. There are areas where we have opened sub-centres for a habitation of 1,000 persons. After making newly sanctioned sub-centres, we will again approach the Central Government for more health institutions to take healthcare facilities at the doorstep,” he said.