‘Shortage affecting quality healthcare’
Sajidah Yousuf
Srinagar, Aug 24 : The average Doctor Patient Ratio (DPR) at District and Sub-District hospitals is comparatively low—thus affecting the quality of healthcare system across the board, revels Master Plan 2035.
According to the Master Plan-2035 public policy document accessed by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), “It is clear that the average Doctor Patient Ratio in District and Sub-District Hospitals is quite low and requires institutional redressal for enhancing the quality of the healthcare system.”
The draft roadmap of the Srinagar Metropolitan Region (SMR) 2035 states that in order to meet the requirements of health related infrastructure and to tackle the problems of sub-optimum health delivery system there was a need to establish easily accessible primary healthcare units in each planning unit as per the standards of Development Code 2016.
“Physiotherapy and fitness centers should be established in each planning unit to control diseases related to lifestyle modification and obstetric health units should be evenly distributed throughout the city and should cater to normal deliveries and identify high risk deliveries for referral to obstetric hospitals,” it reads.
The master plan further suggests that each unit should have in-build state of art neonatology services to cater to the newborn.
Mentioning the status of healthcare facilities available in the Srinagar city, the roadmap states that it has many specialized health facilities used by the local and regional population.
“The urban healthcare scenario in Srinagar district has seen visible improvement during the last two decades with the creation of multispecialty healthcare services for the whole province,” it reads.
The roadmap however suggested that there was a need for robust health infrastructure in the local area as it serves the whole valley in terms of higher order social services especially healthcare.
The SMR-2035 master plan reads, “Except for Srinagar city, the standard of healthcare facilities is comparatively very poor in other cities and towns which increase the possibility of referral system from district hospitals to tertiary hospitals in Srinagar.”
It reveals, “There is a need to provide quality and affordable infrastructure to the growing urban and rural population across all districts and Tehsils.”—(KNO)
