Doctors ridicule J&K’s new drug policy

Author Mukhtar Ahmed - Thursday, 23 02 2012 10:28

• Comments

Health Minister is mentally retarded, should be chained-up in mental asylum: DAK  
Srinagar, Feb 22: With the new Drug Policy having pitted the state government and the medical representatives and chemists against each other, Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) Wednesday jumped in launching a frontal attack on the Health Minister.
Addressing media-persons during a seminar here, the members of DAK, while terming the health sector in J&K unfavorable for the new Drug Policy, said that government should first address the lacunae that are plaguing the health sector here.
“Our Heath Minister is claiming that the drug policy will better the overall scenario of health sector in J&K. But we would like to tell him that the ‘Essential Drug List’ he is bragging about is actually a copied version of World Health Organization’s list.
“Therefore, we would request the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to relieve Sham Lal Sharma of his portfolio as he is so naïve about the health sector that there is every possibility he will sink it into murky waters,” president, DAK, Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan said.
Hassan said that the Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma does not possess the knowledge and substance for the formulation of the Drug Policy in the state.
In the absence of an autonomous body for procurement of drugs and Standard Treatment Protocol (STP), the Drug Policy will severely hit the health sector in the state. “Therefore, we believe that Health Minister is mentally-retarded and he should be handcuffed and chained and kept in a mental asylum,” DAK president said.
Instead of wasting time on Drug Policy, government should devise a mechanism for reformation of the health sector in the state, he suggested, citing that J&K has no clinical outputs and research for advocacy of any drug policy.
Narrating the painful agony and compulsions that the political situation of the last 20 years in Kashmir has made inflicted upon the doctors, Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan said, “I (doctor) am a product of this conflict. I am being paid Rs 8,000 for ensuring the health of the state’s people. I have been suffering at many fronts for the last 20 years here. The maltreatment meted out to me has forced me to practice in other countries.
“Why is this government bent on breaking my back when it is fully aware of what all I have gone through and tolerated in the last two decades?” the DAK president asked in a passionate tone.
“Why doesn’t the Health Minister understand that his shallow knowledge and arrogance will kill the efficacy of health sector in Kashmir? Why has the government empowered an indolent person like Sharma with a prestigious portfolio like Health?”  Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan asked.
The speeches in the seminar made it evident that come what may, DAK along with medical representatives and chemists associations (who had also turned up at the seminar) are determined to fight the latest Drug Policy and that would do whatever it takes to ensure its roll-back.
“He (Sharma) is yet to come to terms with our resolve. We will stand and oppose any move that is aimed at breaking the back of health sector in the state. Sharma must take into account every stakeholder before formulation of the drug policy in the state. He must bear it in mind that the move is going to render more than 10 lakh people jobless in the state,” DAK president added.
Lamenting that the rampant corruption has seriously affected the functioning of the health sector in the state, DAK president alleged that during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was wreathed with a garland “costing more than Rs 1.25 crore”.
“Not only this, but bureaucrats are draining the state exchequer as they spend one lakh rupees on a simple bio-chemical test outside the state,” alleged Dr. Nissar-ul-Hassan.
Adding further said that government instead of making generic drugs the order of the day here should seriously try and fix the pathetic infrastructure and do something about the sub-standard drugs that have been kept available at all the hospitals in the state.
“Being a doctor, I don’t take any medicines from the hospital as I know it is only the branded product that will relieve me from the disease,” one of the doctors said during the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion, DAK spokesperson, Dr. Mir Mushtaq said with the STP yet to be researched thoroughly in J&K, the new Drug Policy will worsen the condition of entire health sector here.
“We have only one maternity hospital in Kashmir. It is a shameful that in even in 2012 patients have to be referred from Kupwara to Srinagar and these poor people have to bear all the expenses for it. We lack hospitals and doctors. Therefore, government instead of going for the advocacy of a faulty drug policy should address the rot that prevails at the ground-level,” he emphasized.
“Under the garb of prescribing generic drugs, government is fooling the people as it is itself responsible for the thriving of unscrupulous medical shops and quacks in the state,” he added.
“Our hospitals are crying for want of renovation. The situation of the peripheral health sector is so deplorable that a patient is referred to Srinagar hospitals for slightest of ailments. Under such a deplorable scenario, government should go for reformation of health sector first,” he added.