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TOWARDS A HEALTHIER PARADISE

Vol 2 (3)

02 News Makers

04 Photogallery

15 Events

12 Notable Surgeries

13 Guest Article

ANNUAL PERFORMANCE AWARDS SPECIAL ISSUE

HEALTH LINE

ISSUE FOCUS

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Personality in FocusDR. MUHAMMAD MUZAFFAR U ZAMAN DRABU

Dr Muzaffar Drabu was born in Sri-nagar, Kashmir in a middle class family in Narwara. His father was a teacher in a

Government School. He lost his mother at a very young age and was brought up by his elder sisters. He received religious teaching from his paternal uncle Mr Darab. Dr. Mu-zaffar did his schooling from Islamia School, BSC from S.P College Srinagar. He did his M.B.B.S from Amritsar Medical College.Dr Muzaffar Drabu started his career in Chest Disease Hospital as an Assistant Surgeon and worked his way up to become Deputy Superintendant of Womens Hospi-tal (L.D.Hospital) & SMHS Hospital, Sri-nagar. He was then appointed as the first Medical Superintendant of Pediatric Hos-pital. He had a brief stint in Jammu and Chittranjan mobile hospitals as well.A strict disciplinarian, punctual, and hon-est doctor and administrator he recieved unwavering support from administration, colleagues and subordinates and admira-

tion from the public. Dr Muzaffar Drabu rose to the post of Deputy Director Head-quarters and finally to the apex post of Di-rector Health Services. Dr Drabu as Direc-tor Health Services travelled extensively throughout the length and breadth of the valley and personally supervised relief op-erations especially during the turbulent nineties. He retired as Director Health Ser-vices and was honoured by SKIMS for his outstanding services.Dr Muzaffar Drabu was a very popular ,honest and highly skilled physician who - in a career spanning forty years - prac-ticed with very nominal fees up to the last days of his life. He was extremely courteous and warm with his colleagues and subordi-nates. An inspiration to his friends and col-leagues he will always be remembered by the Directorate of Health Services.

NewsmakersLife Saving Surgery

A 25 year old patient, Miss Amina of Kondabal was admitted as

a case of acute abdomen at 3 p.m on the 14th of August 2012 at

District Hospital Ganderbal. The patient was assessed as perito-

nitis possibly due to perforated appendix. Instead of shifting the

patient, the surgeons decided to perform exploratory laparotomy

after relevant investigations and consent.

This decision by Dr. Sheikh Tariq (MCh Plastic Surgery) and Dr

Rouf Khwaja (DNB Uro-Surgery) proved to be a life-saving one.

Operative findings revealed perforated gall-bladder with biliary

peritonitis. Patient underwent emergency cholecystectomy and

was discharged after an uneventful postoperative period.

The Directorate of Health Services Kashmir has awarded Dr.

Sheikh Tariq and Dr Rouf Khwaja for their initiative and commit-

ment.Dr. Sheikh Tariq and Dr Rouf Khwaja with the patient and her parents

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PHOTOGALLERYPerformance Awards 2012

Healthcare workers whose services made us proud at the National Level culminating in National Award.

ANMs of Functional Delivery Points Best Hospital Award

Organisations beyond formal healthcare system that are helping to make a difference.

International Red Cross Committee Dr. Kanav Kahol from PHFI

Excellent Performance in providing quality healthcare for religious pilgrimages over the years

Hajj 2012 Team Yatra 2012 Team

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Healthcare workers whose work in NCD enabled the State to achieve National recognition.

Officers of District Kupwara Officers of Kargil District

Best Surgeon Award

Best Ophthalmologist Award

Best Physician Award

Best Dental Surgeon Award

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Sukh Pal Meena (SSPM) Memorial Foundation ZAKAT Trust Khrew

Release of 3rd Quarterly Newsletter of Directorate of Health Services Musical Show by Jhankar Beats

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Views of esteemed audience

Views of esteemed audience

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Secretary to Government, H&ME Hon’ble Health Minister addressing the gathering.

Director of Health Services Kashmir Dignitaries gracing the occassion

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The Organizing Teams

Group photographs of awardees and attendees

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Awards for Yatra 2012 Awards for Hajj 2012

Follow-up Function at Government Kashmir Nursing Home on 06-11-2012 for Hajj 2012 & Amarnath Yatra 2012 Health Teams

Valuable Employee Award A view of the audience

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Sukh Pal Meena (SSPM) Memorial Foundation

Sukh Pal Meena (SSPM) Memorial Foundation is a Trust work-ing for better health care of downtrodden. The Trust has organ-ised over hundred health camps including Rajasthan, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mijoram, Assam , Jammu Kashmir and Orissa . In the camps, the Trust has spread awareness through counseling and films about diseases like STD, dengue, TB, diabetes etc. During the camps, special focus being given to the disability people. Over fifty thousand patients got benefited by the camps in different part of country. In some camps, doctors from abroad also have come and treated the patients. Health camps have also been organized in many industrial areas keeping in view the hazardous work the laborers do. Sukh Pal Meena (SSPM) Memorial Foundation work is notable in Machil sector as it remains cut-off from the rest of the world for almost seven months in a year and is located on the line of control with scattered, poor population having little access to basic modern health care services. Through his organization he has provided service to expectant mothers, children, the aged

and the disabled in the underserved areas like Mahjoor Nagar and Moti Mohalla also other remote areas like Lar and Gani-wan (Gandherbal ) , Ketsan, Helmatpora and Kanibathi ( Band-ipora ) and Thalley Machil ,Ring Balla ,Sarkuli Katwara Machil and Nagsari ( Kupwara).

Notable Surgeries Phylloides tumor of Breast

Team Members : Dr Nazir Ahmad Wani, Dr. Mir Nazir Ahmad , Dr. Syed Mirji Andrabi Institution : , Govt. Emergency Hospital Qazigund, District Anantnag Kashmir38 year premenopausal woman with a left breast lump measuring 5X10 cms in the upper outer quadrant . Histopathology revealed Phyllodes tumor that is a very rare tumor of the breast ( <1%).

Wide local incision of tumour mass in progress Resected phylloides tumour specimen

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Bridging the Health Divide in Jammu & KashmirManoj Kumar Dwivedi,

Secretary, Health & Medical Education Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir

“During the last 12 months, the state of J&K has shown more improvement in the field of healthcare as compared to any other state in the country,”

Kindly tell us about the initiatives that your department is taking to bring improvement in the health-care facilities that are available to the people in the state?

The State Health Department is dedicated to achieve universal basic healthcare for all the citizens of the state. We are making great efforts to ensure that the quality of healthcare becomes better in all our secondary and tertiary hospitals. I would say that the primary mandate of the State Health Department is to ensure that primary healthcare system gets further boost and every person is able to access quality healthcare in this geo-graphically difficult state. There should be a primary healthcare centre within one kilometre distance of every citizen in rural and urban areas. This will bring about a dramatic improvement in the health status of the citizens, especially those who are living in the rural areas. The idea is to provide access to equitable, af-fordable and quality healthcare to all. We are focussed on reduc-ing Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate, stabilising the population and ensuring that the gender and demographic balance is maintained. So this is what we are trying to achieve at the primary level, and we also realise that at the secondary and tertiary level, we have to upgrade the quality of healthcare. All the parameters of healthcare that are the indicators of the qual-ity of health- care, i.e., IMRI the overall fatality rate, birth rate, are being taken into account, to enable us to develop better methodologies for healthcare delivery.

How is e-Governance in healthcare leading to the improve-ment in the kind of care that the common man receives?

Lot of new e-Governance initiatives in healthcare have been taken, and it is pleasure to inform that according to new data, during the last 12 months, the state of J&K has shown more im-provement in the field of healthcare as compared to any other

state in the country. The use of new technology in the field of healthcare has definitely had a role to play in the development of healthcare in the state. We have a system in place to closely monitor the health of mother and children. There is an efficient mother and child tracking system in place to update the state government on their health parameters and nutrition factors. We are developing a system through which data can be collect-ed at block level through the computer and fed into the overall health database of the state. We are also having a system where health workers in villages can use mobile phones with preload-ed software to collect and transmit information.

What kind of mobile software will this be?

It will basically be a Java based application, with a very easy to use interface. The healthcare workers will be able to feed the parameters of the data related to pregnant ladies in an area, chil-dren born in that area. The data will get automatically transmit-ted to the block level and uploaded on our servers. It is necessary for the state of J&K to use mobile based systems because unlike other states we don’t have a State Wide Network; however, the penetration of mobile telephony is at 90 percent. Steps are be-ing undertaken to further upgrade the mobile based monitoring systems. We also have a wide network of ambulances; more than 800 ambulances are attached to various healthcare stations for transportation of patients to healthcare centres. The ambulances will soon be outfitted with GPS tracking systems so that their movements can be monitored through a Central Monitoring Sys-tem. The Hospital Management System is already being imple-mented in different hospitals. We are starting with two hospitals, one in Jammu region and the other in Kashmir. In both these hospitals we are planning to have end to end computerisation of the entire hospital system.

According to you what are the main healthcare projects of the states that had been immensely successful and have the potential to be replicated?

The application that has given the best result is actually the implementation of ‘Janani-Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK).’ This is a key sponsored scheme under the National Rural Health

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Mission. In J&K the MMR rate is better than the national average, but we are endeavouring to reduce it further. So we are having in place lot of facilities like free medical check ups, free medicine, free compulsory medical check ups for mothers. We are also set-ting up lot of community health- care centres, which are proving to be very effective in providing healthcare to our citizens.What steps should be taken to ensure that the government owned health care centres, especially those in rural areas, are fully manned?

The biggest challenge that we face has to do with the short-age of doctors and staff nurses. To overcome this challenge, we have introduced the scheme of incentives. We have divided the difficult areas into three categories difficult areas, very difficult areas, and inaccessible areas. Difficult areas are those areas that are very far from cities, but are accessible through roads. The very difficult areas are those which are not completely accessible via roads, they require little walking distance. Inaccessible areas are those which are cut off with snow in winters, we are talk-ing about places like, Ladhakh, Kargil. In the incentive scheme for doctors that we have started the doctors employed in the National Rural Health Mission Scheme get incentive of 20000, 15000, and 10000 depending on the nature of the area where they are serving. This has started giving results and now doctors are willing to serve these areas. Earlier we had about 200 posts vacant in these areas and now only 10 – 15 post are lying vacant.

What are other challenges that you face in developing healthcare in the state? What are the solutions for overcom-ing these challenges?

The other big challenge is that of infrastructure, there are large numbers of primary and sub-primary healthcare centres which are being run in rented buildings. Obviously this is a big chal-lenge because doctors are not ready to serve where there is no facility for providing medical care. So we are trying to upgrade the infrastructure in every part of the state. The third challenge that we face is that of lack of nursing training schools, and lack of medical colleges. We presently produce 300 doctors every year from the state, but we actually need more than 1000 doctors. The seats in the medical colleges have to be increased Similarly there is lack of trained nursing staff. We train about 400 nurses every year, whereas we need 1000 nurses for various districts in our state.

What is your opinion of the medical training that is available in the state? Is it at par with the training that is available in other parts of the country?

There is no doubt that we are lagging in the aspect of medical education. We are lagging in that and it is also a problem that no one is likely to come from other states for serving in this difficult state. For improving medical education, we have taken steps to introduce fast track learning courses at our teaching facilities. We are also making it possible for the professors at our institu-tions to get promoted quickly. As there was shortage of faculty, we have made changes in our recruitment rules to make it pos-sible for more people to apply for the jobs.

In your opinion what kind of experiences and sensibilities as an administrator, must a health secretary bring to his job? How do you tackle the challenges and the pressures that are part of your Job?

The healthcare sector is very different compared to other sec-tors. Even if there are lot of private sector participation in health-care, and we have hospitals like Apollo, Max and others, we still need government involvement in healthcare to ensure that the poorer section of the population is taken care of adequately. As an administrator my focus is on developing policies that are for the poor. Healthcare sector is also difficult because the human resource in this sector is difficult to manage. So the job of the ad-ministrator is to develop policies that can attract more talent. We have to provide adequate incentives for the doctors and other healthcare staff to join the mission of proving better healthcare to all. We have to have an open mind so that we can have the cooperation of all the Panchayats and people from diverse areas of the state.

Before becoming a Health Secretary, you had been an IT Sec-retary. Which job you find more satisfying and more chal-lenging?

Being an IAS officer, I have to move from one department to the other. There are some departments like Finance and IT where the activities happen on a broader scale. I say this in the sense that these two departments develop policies and systems that can have an im-pact on every other department. As IT secretary I had the chance of being involved in the development of IT solutions that were being used in the healthcare segment. So when I came to the Healthcare sec- tor, I was already conversant with the IT systems with which the healthcare sector can be revitalised. Immediately after joining the healthcare segment, I have started the initiative of updating our websites. We are now making active usage of social media to dish out health related information to the public. Lot of new initiatives have been taken for computerising the healthcare delivery systems.

Courtesy EHealth

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Events

The inaugural issue of the Annual Performance Review of the Directorate of

Health Services Kashmir being released by Shri Sham Lal Sharma,the Hon’ble

Health Minister

Patients enjoying an interactive quiz session on World Diabetes Day at Gov-ernment Kashmir Nursing Home. Diabetic patients were provided free coun-seling, complete investigation package and multimedia education regard-ing diabetes.

Workshop and CME on Trauma held under the aegis of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir State Chapter of As-sociation of Surgeons of India (JAKASI) at Gateway of Kashmir (TRC), Qa-zigund on 13th June, 2012

One Day Interactive Workshop commemorating Founders Day of Indian Water Works Association, 10th October 2012 at DEPH (RFPTC) , Barzalla, Srinagar as part of collaborative efforts with other departments.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Editor-in-Chief: Saleem –ur- Rehman | EDITORS: SM Kadri & Bakshi Jehangir LAYOUT, DESIGN AND PROCESSING: Showkat Hussain | PRINTED AND PUBLISHED Quarterly by The Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir

Comments/ Feedback Welcome at kadrism@gmail.com or krich.dhsk@gmail.com

Meeting of Academic Committee and BLS Trainers held at RFPTC Barzulla on 01.01.2012

First ever chemotherapy treatment session at District level at District Hospital Handwara in remote Kupwara district under flagship NCD Program.

Inaugural function of free Super-specialist Health Camp held at Khrew, Pampore in collaboration with ZAKAT Trust as part of ongoing Health Outreach Program of the Directorate.

Hon’ble Health Minister addressing members of press during tour of Shri Amarnath Yatra arrangements at Pahalgam.