J&K health department facing acute shortage of trained technicians   

Jammu: The machines in premises of health institutions are biting dust as the Jammu and Kashmir health department is facing acute shortage of trained technicians.

Ironically, the Jammu and Kashmir has no scarcity of technicians.

“ In  last 4 years around 100 technicians completed diploma courses in the Union Territory,” an official told The Dispatch.

“If some technicians are working, they got jobs on contract. They are being neglected by the government even the government did not bother to recruit them in newly constructed DRDO’s hospital,” he added.                           

To address the shortage of Anesthesia Technicians in ICUs in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, a two-year diploma course was started in all AMT schools. The first batch passed out in the year 2017.

After this, three batches have been passed so far.

In these batches, more than a hundred youth took training of Anesthesia Technician. But till now there are very few of them, whom the government has given permanent employment.

Some have been put on contract for one year each in various medical colleges including GMC Jammu. Some have been employed under the National Health Mission for only 12 thousand rupees per month.

The condition is that there is a shortage of Anesthesia Technician in the Department of Health and Medical Education. The health department has very few technicians. This is the reason that even the DRDO hospital in Jammu does not have enough trained staff to operate ventilators.

At present, the staff and some pharmacists who have come from B.Sc Nursing are being trained to operate ventilators in the medical colleges.

47 posts of Anesthesia Technician were created in DRDO Hospital, Jammu. Not one of them has been appointed yet. The recruitment process for these posts has not started yet. From this it can be gauged that how serious the government is about the lives of patients. At the same time, the DRDO hospital in Srinagar opened later than Jammu, but all the appointments have been made there.

GMC administration is afraid that if it starts the recruitment process for 47 posts of Anesthesia Technician in DRDO hospital, then the technician work under National Health Mission in GMC, they can also leave the job and go to the DRDO hospital. This is because of the huge difference in pay. Technicians appointed under the National Health Mission are getting only Rs 12,000 per month, while working in a DRDO hospital will get a salary of Rs 35,000.