With an aim to ensure better healthcare in the newly constituted Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has granted 265 Diplomate of National Board (DNB) postgraduate medical seats to several Government hospitals across 20 districts of the UTs with the active contribution of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS).
The move is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Health for All” aimed at improvement of healthcare delivery across the country, said a senior official from the Union Health Ministry.
This would not only ensure benefits to the locals but also the medicos as they will get an opportunity of being trained in their own region. “Tapping this homegrown medical workforce would lead to an effective healthcare delivery system in the Union Territory,” the official added.
The effort was taken on a mission mode with the vision of providing trained specialists in almost every district of J&K, said the official.
The Ministry along with NBEMS took a lead role and ensured that several postgraduate seats of NBEMS were granted to various government hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir.
As a consequence, presently there exists more than 250 PG seats across 20 districts in phase 1 of the expansion plan. Two more PG seats will be granted in the second phase. Furthermore, 50per cent of the PG seats are reserved for local in-service doctors to provide them the opportunity for postgraduate training.
The locals of the region will be benefited as modern quality healthcare will become more affordable and accessible in almost all the districts. This in turn, would further enhance the quality of primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare.
For various medical entrance examinations, the Centre has increased the number of examination centres in the UT itself. This has ensured that local aspirant candidates do not have to travel to other States to appear for the entrance examinations.