Clinic for govt employees shut down in Jammu

Medical Superintendent of the GMC,Dr Ramesh Gupta,said,“The employees clinic was closed as we didn’t feel the need to keep a separate staff for running it. Employees can also get the medical advice from general Out Patient Departments (OPDs) and there was no need for a separate employees clinic in the hospital.”

However while the employees clinic has been closed,the room where it has been set up is not being used for any other purpose. “In an era of specialized healthcare,it was extremely important that the employees especially those working in the GMC should have a separate facility for getting medical diagnosis” sources say,adding that the employees clinic was opened nearly four years back,however after the clinic was opened at the GMC it didn’t function even for more than a month.

“The clinic was manned by junior staff only and the senior doctors never came to diagnose the patients. This was the reason that the employees didn’t come to the clinic and preferred to get diagnosed by the senior doctors in their office chambers and even in the general OPDs” sources said,adding however they have asked the higher authorities in GMC to re-start the clinic.

“It was on the pattern of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) that we asked the government to set up an employee’s clinic. However it didn’t function for long. Through the employees’ clinic,a list of ailing employees was to be maintained so that they can be regularly checked and even given information on the measures they can take to avoid the diseases,” sources said.

Sources add that the setting up of an employee clinic was the long pending demand of the employees of the health department. “Employees in the health department were demanding that besides the setting of an employees’ clinic government should also increase their medical allowance from Rs 300,” sources add.

Government Medical College Principal,Rajinder Singh,however said,that there was no plan to re-start the employee’s clinic. “It is because employees don’t come to the clinic,” he said.

However sources said that the government was earlier asked to start the clinic. “Government was asked even to upgrade the employees’ clinic to make it function round the clock,” they add.