Health Status and Access to Health Care Services in Jammu and Kashmir State

Human capital, as characterized by good education and good health is an important determinant of economic growth. Health finds a predominant place in three of the eight goals, eight of the sixteen targets and eighteen of the forty-eight indicators of the “Millennium Development Goals of the United Nation”. Health is the most important social service sector having direct correlation with the welfare of the human being. This sector assumes focus for reaping the demographic dividend having healthy productive workforce and general welfare of a State. The State of Jammu and Kashmir has performed relatively well in providing health and medical facilities to the people, but the level is still beneath the satisfaction. The progress of health infrastructure in the State can be judged by the health infrastructure i.e., the availability of hospitals, dispensaries and doctors. There are 4433 Govt. Health institutions at primary, secondary and tertiary levels with 6674 doctors in-position. The doctor patient ratio in our State is 1:1880 as against the recommendations of World Health Organization (WHO) of 1:1000. The doctor patient ratio at the National level is 1:2000. Besides, 826 sub-centers, 371 New Type Primary Health Centers (NTPHCs) and 87 ISM dispensaries have been sanctioned recently. Further, 1443 Specialists, MBBS/AYUSH doctors and 5494 paramedics have been hired on contract basis under National Health Mission (NHM) respectively. The Bed Capacity of different hospital under GMC Srinagar /Jammu and its associate hospitals in the State is 12965 comprising of 6967 in Kashmir and 5998 in Jammu regions. Most of the health indices of the Jammu and Kashmir are far better as compared to all India level. This is especially a case with life expectancy, Crude Birth Rate, Crude Death Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Institutional Births.