Though health care is one of the priority sectors among the nine pillars earmarked by the government in the present budget, the ailing sector nation-wide in general and in the State of Jammu and Kashmir in particulars is pathetic. The Union Government proposes to provide affordable medicines by setting up 3,000 Jan Aushadhi outlets. Jammu and Kashmir has two outlets in Jammu and Srinagar to provide generic medicines by cutting profit margins to general public and otherwise the much acclaimed scheme in the State has remained a non-starter. On the contrary the ‘doctor-chemist’ nexus cultivated by the big pharmaceutical companies has become much strong and prosperous. The mushroom growth of chemist outlets is an open indicator of this growing nexus. Under such circumstances how is it possible to provide better healthcare for common man. Now the present budget proposes a National Dialysis Programme to be rolled through private-public participation or popularly known as PPP mode to make medical treatment more accessible to the people. The programme also allows duty-free import of dialysis equipment which could lower treatment cost. Over two lakh renal patients are added every year in the country and the distribution of the health facilities are skewed. The proposed mission envisages to provide affordable and reachable dialysis facilities up to district hospital level. Given the state of health care facilities and services in J and K the future of such a proposal can be explained in one word-pathetic. Surprisingly the State has bagged twice the best state award from Union Health Ministry—one under the National Conference-Congress Coalition and second under the 10-month short stint of Peoples Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. Despite all the awards the poor are left at the mercy of private doctors or government doctor’s private practices and now with the dialysis facilities coming to district-level one can imagine the state of affairs. There is no doubt that the proposed benefits are not going to reach the target group-the Jan for whom the affordable and reachable medical treatment would always remain a far-off dream as long as doctor-chemist-pharma company nexus remains.
