Lone 30-bedded hospital caters to 200 border villages

Arteev Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 29

Catering to over 200 villages in two border Assembly constituencies along the volatile international border (IB), the lone hospital in the RS Pura sector of the district has been grappling with shortage of infrastructure and manpower, subjecting border dwellers to great hardships for medical treatment.

The problem generally compounds when border areas witness intense shelling and firing by Pakistan, causing injuries to civilians and security personnel. On a majority of occasions, the injured are forced to look for alternative medical facilities to get better treatment.

“There are only 30 beds in Community Health Centre (CHC) in RS Pura,” Block Medical Officer (BMO), RS Pura, said in response to an RTI application filed by a Jammu-based activist and national president of the Kisan Welfare Organisation Rohit Choudhary.

Choudhary claimed that there were more than 200 villages along the border in the RS Pura area and the current health facilities in Community Health Centre, RS Pura, were inadequate to cater to the rush of patients.

“The situation becomes alarming when there is firing and shelling along the border. The grievously injured patients don’t get adequate medical treatment in time. Unfortunately, no government has bothered to take notice of this sensitive issue. Border dwellers continue to be the victim of this official indifference,” the activist said, adding that another building of the hospital was being constructed in the area for the past many years, but it was yet to be completed.

The RTI reply also said a total of 14 ambulances were on road in the RS Pura area to ferry patients, while a total of 462 snakebites were reported in the last nine years.

According to the BMO, RS Pura, Satish Chander, the hospital caters to two Assembly constituencies — Suchetgarh and RS Pura under which hundreds of villages fall.

“No doubt, there is shortage of beds in the hospital, but work on a new 50-bedded building is in progress and it may be completed by next month. With the commissioning of the new building, we are hopeful that it will deal with the problem to a considerable extent,” the BMO claimed.

He, however, said two posts of specialists in ENT and orthopaedics were lying vacant in the hospital, besides the hospital had a vacant post of CMO. “We have requested the Health Department and we will get the requisite manpower soon,” he said.