www.earlytimes.in For Oct 26, 2009

J&K getting 2 air ambulances, courtesy Azad
50 critical care ambulances being procured for District Hospitals, National Highway

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Thanks to former Chief Minister and Union Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, an extremely ill-equipped Jammu & Kashmir state is getting two critical care air ambulances within current financial year, even as Omar Abdullah-led coalition government has already begun process for procurement of 50 fresh ambulance vans for all the 22 District Hospitals and Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Highly placed authoritative sources revealed to Early Times that Ghulam Nabi Azad was currently clearing the decks in the Union Health Ministry for sanctioning an extra-ordinary financial grant of Rs 36 Crore for procurement of two critical care air ambulances for Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah’s government had earlier this year submitted the proposal to the Centre as no such facility existed in the state which was increasingly growing infamous for road accidents, particularly in Mr Azad’s home districts of Doda and Kishtwar.

Taking advantage of their monopoly, three New Delhi-based private hospitals have been charging hefty amounts of Rs 4.50 Lakh and Rs 3.50 Lakh for each of Srinagar-Delhi and Jammu-Delhi flights respectively. As few private individuals, mostly affluent businessmen, have afforded to charter such flights from Srinagar and Jammu in the last seven years, only senior most government functionaries are supposed to be entitled to this expensive privilege.

Posting of medium rung officials like a former Secretary to then Chief Minister (Naeem Akhtar) and a former SP Raj Bhawan (Ramesh Jalla) has also saved few lives as Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Lt Gen (Reted) S K Sinha, respectively, had personally ordered shifting of such officials from Srinagar to New Delhi by air ambulances of a private hospital based in New Delhi. Both, Akhtar and Jalla, had fallen to multiple artery blockages in Srinagar and got their second life because of their posting in CM’s Secretariat and Raj Bhawan.

Helicopters and aircraft of Army, BSF and Air Force are occasionally being employed for ferrying influential government officials and soldiers suffering serious cardiac ailments or critical injuries either from different places in the state to Srinagar and Jammu or from J&K to New Delhi. However, most of such flying machines, according to informed sources, are not equipped with life saving machinery and staff. One thousand and five hundred kilometer long highway from Lakhanpur to Leh, Jammu to Poonch, Batote to Kishtwar, Udhampur to Katra, Srinagar to Gulmarg and Sangrama to Uri has remained the worst affected in terms of road accidents and people succumbing to injuries.

Minister of Health, Sham Lal Sharma, confirmed that the process of procurement of two highly sophisticated and well-equipped critical care air ambulances was in its final stage as Union Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was taking personal care to ensure that both these flying machines were acquired in the next few months. He said that one each of these ambulances would remain stationed at Srinagar and Jammu respectively. Mr Sharma said that this facility would be availed by anybody in J&K who was in need of being flown to a super special treatment hospital in New Delhi, Chandigarh and other places.

Mr Sharma revealed that the flying machines, each costing around Rs 18 Crore, would be like helicopters which could land and take off at any ordinary place in the state. He said that these air ambulances could carry the patients from any place to a hospital in Srinagar and Jammu or from J&K to New Delhi and other cities in the country. According to him, state-of-the-art medical equipment fitted in the air ambulances would cost more than the flying machines.

Mr Sharma revealed to Early Times that his department was also in the process of acquiring as many as 50 fresh critical care ambulance vans for trauma and delivery patients besides those suffering from cardiac arrest and other diseases needing urgent medical treatment. As each ambulance would cost around Rs 25 Lakh, an amount of Rs 6.00 Crore had been earmarked for this purpose, he said. According to him, all 22 District Hospitals would get one each ambulance and three more would be provided to Government Medical College Srinagar, GMC Jammu and Leh district.

Minister said that 25 fresh ambulances were being procured for recovery of the people falling victim to road accidents on the highways in the current financial year. He claimed that there would be as many as 50 well equipped critical care ambulances on 1,500 Km length of the highways in J&K in the next two years---one each every 30 Km. Mr Sharma said that presently only two private hospitals, both in Jammu, had this facility available with them and they had been charging exorbitant amounts of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 for each trip from Jammu to Ludhiana and Jammu to New Delhi. Minister had no hesitation to admit that presently his government had just one of such ambulances which always remained attached to Raj Bhawan. That too was deficient in various respects.

Mr Sharma said that all the 50 critical care ambulances being acquired for DHs, GMCs and highways this year would be fitted with sophisticated cardio-monitoring systems, defabulators and oxygen gadgetry. According to him, acute shortage of anesthetists, pharmacists and drivers was the biggest problem afflicting the healthcare system, particularly the critical care, in J&K. He said that in order to address this problem, Mr Azad had managed to change rules and the government had, of late, increased the intake capacity of anesthetists and radiologists in all medical colleges in the state by 100%. He said that professors would previously keep one each PG student for such courses but now on there would be two of such students with each professor.

Minister said that his Government would have to launch a special recruitment drive to appoint drivers and regularize all those working on contractual arrangement and consolidated salaries with different hospitals as the healthcare system had become nearly dysfunctional for want of necessary staff.

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