SRINAGAR: Sub District Hospital Kupwara faces an average daily outpatient load of roughly 2,500 patients despite being short of staff, the Government told the Legislative Assembly, and said a 50-bed critical care block costing Rs 123.75 crore is under construction to ease pressure on the facility.
The reply to a starred question said the hospital serves a vast catchment that includes Keran, Karnah, Machil, Kupwara, Trehgram, Lolab and parts of Handwara and Langate, much of it border and hard-to-reach terrain. Officials told legislators that, under the Indian Public Health Standards norms, district hospitals are the designated tertiary centres and that Kupwara’s district hospital has been upgraded as an associated hospital of Government Medical College Handwara to provide tertiary care for the region.
The government said upgradation of an SDH to a super-speciality hospital does not fall within IPHS norms, but listed a raft of measures intended to strengthen services at SDH Kupwara. Those include construction of the 50-bed critical care block under the Emergency Covid Response Package II, establishment of a District Integrated Public Health Laboratory and Block Public Health Units under the Prime Minister Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, expansion of eSanjeevani telemedicine in a hub-and-spoke model, and deployment of mobile medical units to reach remote areas.
To address staffing gaps, the Health Department said it is undertaking a rationalisation and redistribution plan to align medical and paramedical staff with patient inflow, and that transfers of long-posted staff continue as an administrative process. The reply also detailed service-quality measures already in place: enforcement of duty rosters and attendance, strengthened emergency services, diagnostics and pharmacy, implementation of National Quality Assurance Standards and LaQshYa certification, free drugs and diagnostics under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram and the National Health Mission, and functional grievance and patient feedback mechanisms.
The Health Department said the combination of infrastructure upgrades, telemedicine expansion and mobile outreach would reduce pressure on in-hospital services and improve access for residents of the far-flung areas served by the hospital.
