Rajan Gandhi GMC Jammu, established way back in 1973 and shifted to Bakshi Nagar Building in 1993, has right now five teaching hospitals namely, Medical College Hospital, CD hospital, SMGS hospital, Psychiatry hospital and Dental hospital with hundreds of employees including resident doctors, paramedical Staff, supervisory staff, Class-III and IV officials trying to work in tandem to mitigate sufferings of patient rush of whole Jammu Division along with winter rush of Kashmir patients shifting to Jammu province to avoid harsh winters, but not withstanding the claims of Government regarding improvement in medical facilities, situation is really dismal. Shortage of staff on every front, J&K Government for years together has failed to fill up vacant posts in the GMC faculty despite knowing fully that Medical College Jammu is always overburdened with rush of patients. This whole situation was too evident during peak COVID crisis as GMC alone was catering to almost whole Jammu Division as District hospitals along with newly opened GMCs were caught with least preparations, some having no oxygen plants, others having but non-operational or operational but no backup power to operate. Situation went out of hands with acute shortage of Physicians and Anaesthetists, mainstay of running round the clock emergency in GMC hospital. Result was patients lining up but no beds, even admitted patients faced oxygen supply interruptions and what not while media journalists blaming doctors for negligence instead of focusing on acute scarcity of staff and infrastructure deficiencies. Though operation theatres were closed for months together but one department worked 24x7x365 days, shoulder to shoulder, with COVID emergency doctors-Department of Radio Diagnosis, GMC Jammu. Though neither planned nor updated to cater to such huge number of patients but still every employee of department worked much beyond assigned duty hours to get right diagnosis for every admitted patient. And the story doesn’t end with COVID emergency only as Radio Diagnosis Department of GMC is the backbone of every department of GMC and associated hospitals. Fact is against total sanctioned strength of 21 faculty, 5 Professors/ 4 Associated professors/ 4 Assistant Professors/ 7 Lecturers and additional tenure based 6 Registrars, but only 3 Professors/ zero Associated Professors/ 3 Assistant Professors/ no Lecturer and only 4 Registrars are there, as year after year, Government has failed to fill up vacancies, result is practically 6 faculty members running whole GMC and Associated hospitals. A visit to GMC Jammu reveals the true story, enter emergency X-ray, CT Scan or Ultra sound comes into picture automatically one way or another. Most astonishing part is despite having six departments Super-Specialty Jammu has no emergency of its own and result is every heart attack patient, every accidental case of neurology gets referred to GMC only. Government seems to in hibernation with no plans for emergency in Super Specialty despite repeatedly years of hardships to patients. A peek into Emergency Radio Diagnosis Centre leaves one astonished, two sets of CT Scans, X-Ray and Ultra Sound, one government run and other private one and difference in two setups is too obvious to be ignored. While private one has been provided ample space, well tiled flooring, proper distemper/paint, ample space for patients with proper sitting arrangement, waiting as well as test rooms, but on the other hand government run diagnostic centre in utterly shabby condition with broken doors, locked toilets, no sitting arrangement, not even proper flooring, tiny 4×8 technician/doctor rooms where they are made to eat, sleep and spend long duty hours. Some rooms having missing/broken false ceiling resulting occasional bird shit along with extreme weather conditions, hot as well as cold. A tiny Ultra Sound room at the entrance of Private Radio Diagnosis Centre with no space for waiting patients, who are left to face logged rain water at entrance. Though running in premises of GMC Jammu on government provided facilities, this diagnostic centre provides no free diagnosis to even BPL patients leave alone Ayushman patients. Established in 2013 by then principal vide reference no: GMC/PS/misc/3806 dated 18-12-2013 inside GMC itself is a scam as for any government hospital tests are the main revenue generators and GMC Jammu is no exception. Almost more thanfifty lakhs per month are collected by Radio Diagnosis department in GMC only despite almost 40 per cent BPL and Ayushman patients tested free of costs. A bigger amount of revenue is earned by private diagnosis centre inside GMC, clear loss to government but no action. Accusations of overcharging have been levelled against this private operator with even an enquiry initiated in 2016, scan premises was taken over and sealed in 2016. GMC Principal at that time had constituted a committee headed by Administrator, GMCH Jammu and Associated Hospitals, to enquire into the allegations of overcharging. The committee in its inquiry in just 12 days found that the concerned firm was charging even patients of blast and bullet injury, road accidents, BPL patients and unknown/unconscious patients for CT Scan which they should have done free of cost under rules. Apart from it, the committee found that there was no Government approval in providing tender to the firm, as the then Secretary, Health and Medical Education was bypassed while giving contract to the firm. Acting as per the findings of the inquiry committee, GMC Principal ordered immediate sealing of premises used by the firm to run PPP mode CT scan machine and directed Chief Accounts Officer, GMC Jammu and Accounts Officer, Associated Hospitals, to impose penalty on the firm for overcharging patients. The order issued by then GMC Principal was cancelled with immediate effect and Medical Superintendent, GMC Jammu immediately seized the premises. But the Private Diagnosis Centre managed to start again. It is matter of serious investigation who has mooted this idea of starting private diagnostic centre in Government Medical College itself causing losses of crores year after year. No efforts have been made to shift this diagnosis centre at least outside emergency. Another interesting aspect is this private diagnostic centre provides no further medical investigations like biopsy or any other analysis and like other hospitals, AIIMS and PGI, these reports are not entertained by GMC Radio Diagnosis Department as for any suspected patient technicians/ doctors on duty immediately on spot decide what further action has to be taken and in which way. This refusal on justified technical grounds lead to unwanted scenes as patients are left with no alternative, suffering monetarily as well as losing precious time in proper diagnosis. In addition to emergency wing of X-ray, CT Scan and Ultrasound on ground floor another set of two ultra sound machines, CT Scan and MRI machine are available on first floor with neat and clean environment and proper sitting arrangements for admitted indoor patients as well as referred OPD patients. Right now there is no waiting for X-Ray, ultra sound or CT Scan and MRI within 24 hours for in hospital admitted patients. A two to three days waiting for MRI for OPD patients as faculty toils far beyond duty hours to provide services to patients. Fact is there is only one government run MRI machine in whole Jammu Province against four in Kashmir province, that too 21 years old, a fact hard to believe that other new GMCs, District Hospitals and other government hospitals are without MRI and other diagnostic equipment leading to either majority referral to GMC or wrong diagnosis or left to private operators to mint money from helpless patients. Despite in 75th year post independence how this vital health infra setups have been denied to various government hospitals is a matter of serious concern. Another unabated loss to Government is being going on in SMGS Hospital. As it is absolutely clear that only source of revenue generation in any hospital are tests, be it pathological or radio diagnosis tests and specific rate list is issued and updated time to time by administration and accordingly tests are charged from patients, however though SMGS Hospital have conducted lakhs of Ultra Sound/ Doppler tests but no charges have been taken for years now as cashier refuse to take money thereby causing losses to the tune of crores to Radio Diagnosis Department, HoD had already intimated higher authorities but no action taken till now. Who is responsible for this loss running in crorers? There is another misconception that with Ayushman card everything comes free but let it be clear to everyone that no OPD test is free for Ayushman card holders and like any other insurance claim one has to be admitted in hospital to avail Ayushman facilities. The registration counter for Ayushman outside emergency clearly depicts the pre-requisite formalities for Ayushman benefit. Lack of this awareness leads to unnecessary verbal and physical scuffles with official staff and staff is left on its own to face the brunt of patients and their attendants. And most tragic part is some media channels instead of creating awareness about this aspect are just adding fuel to fire by misquoting the entire things. Government must ensure the public awareness on this contagious issue immediately to ensure safety of hospital staff. One can summarize the arising situation that despite numerous well intended collective efforts by departmental staff yet desired best facilities are still far away and scope of much improvement is there. One hopes administration wakes up to repeated losses in crores and acts accordingly to get private diagnostic centre shifted out of emergency of GMC and as now Article 370 gone one hopes administration makes everyone accountable and initiates proper inquiry to get the hand in glove moles of health department who are involved in systematic revenue loss to government. Collect genuine revenues of crores to get new latest equipment for GMC. Enough damage has already been done by ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude, it’s time to shun ostrich like approach if Government is serious about improving Health Infrastructure in Jammu.
