In a bid to exploit medical tourism potential of J&K, government has started process for setting up two medical cities, one each at Jammu and Srinagar, Chief Secretary BVR Subramanium said today.
The state government has identified land for medical citiesin the peripheries of Srinagar and Jammu, Subramanium said while speaking atthe inaugural session of the 23rd post-graduate research presentation ofSher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at SKICC here today.
He said the State has immense potential for medical tourismin terms of landscape, weather and medical expertise. “However, it is theinfrastructure that is lacking. Government has worked out a plan to addressthat. The Finance Secretary and the Health Secretary have come out with a healthcareinvestment policy,” he said.
The CS said that land for these cities had been identified”somewhere outside Srinagar and Jammu”. The government was banking on theexpertise of SKIMS to power the plan, he said adding that these cities will bedeveloped to become ‘global centres for medical tourism’ as the cost of medicalinterventions in India and including Kashmir, was one-tenth of the costs inother countries.
“What we need is regular flights from Srinagar to Singaporeand Dubai and the world will come here for medical tourism,” he said.
Giving a timeline for the proposal, he said, the governmentwas looking at “2-3 years” to achieve this goal and an investment summit hadalready been planned this October. “You people can also set up your littlehospitals in these medical cities,” he said while addressing the SKIMS faculty.
He said the state had made “unmatched strides” in healthsector in the past one year. “In one year the MBBS intake capacity hasincreased from 500 to 900 in J&K. Now we may get permission to add another300 seats through reservation scheme for economically challenged students. Andif (GMC) Doda gets MCI permission, we might have a total of 1350 MBBS seats,”he said.
He said that the progress in health sector of J&K was”unparalleled with any other state”.
He commended director SKIMS, Prof Omar Javed Shah forbringing “some semblance of normalcy” to the Institute. “When I joined, therewas not a single day when SKIMS was not in news, and for wrong reasons…in theheadlines, front pages… of Greater Kashmir, (Kashmir) Uzma and Rising Kashmir,”he said. He added that during that period, he was spending at least two hourseveryday to do “fire-fighting to bring some sanity and balance in this place”.
While 11 ANM and GNM colleges had been sanctioned, he saidthat 10 more were in pipeline in order to address shortage of paramedics inState.