Avinash Azad
In a damning admission that exposes the crumbling state of public healthcare in Jammu and Kashmir, the government on Tuesday revealed that 4,341 posts — including doctors, specialists, nurses, and other staff — are lying vacant in the Health and Medical Education Department, leaving hundreds of health institutions across the Union Territory barely functional.
Responding to a question by MLA Farooq Ahmad Shah during the ongoing winter session of the Legislative Assembly in Srinagar, the government said that 1,635 gazetted and 3,616 non-gazetted posts are yet to be filled, acknowledging that the department is “actively pursuing finalization of recruitment rules” in consultation with other departments.
“Referral of remaining vacancies shall be undertaken immediately upon receipt of necessary approvals and concurrence, ensuring compliance with statutory provisions and reservation guidelines,” the government stated.
It further admitted that in the absence of regular staff, the department has been forced to rely on academic arrangements and contractual hiring to keep hospitals and health centres running.
“The department is using academic arrangements as an alternative till the posts are filled on regular basis,” the reply added.
However, insiders and health experts describe the situation as a healthcare collapse in slow motion, with scores of Community Health Centres (CHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) operating as “white elephants” — shiny buildings with little to no medical staff inside.
In several districts of Jammu, Rajouri, Kupwara, and Kulgam, multi-crore health infrastructure lies idle, with newly constructed hospitals running without doctors, radiologists, or laboratory technicians. Locals say patients are routinely forced to travel long distances to district hospitals for even basic treatment.
“The buildings are there, but doctors are missing. These centres serve no purpose without manpower. For villagers, healthcare remains a mirage,” said a health worker from Poonch.
The figures also expose a glaring mismatch between infrastructure expansion and manpower deployment. Over the last few years, the government has announced dozens of new health centres and upgraded facilities under the National Health Mission and centrally sponsored schemes — yet most remain hollow structures, symbolic of bureaucratic apathy and poor planning.
Healthcare insiders blame the administrative inertia, delayed recruitment processes, and lack of accountability for the deepening crisis. “Hospitals don’t heal people on paper. You need doctors, nurses, and technicians — not empty wards and painted walls,” remarked a senior medical officer at a district hospital in north Kashmir.
The revelation adds to a growing list of disclosures from the ongoing Assembly session, where department after department — from Revenue to Education — has admitted to thousands of unfilled vacancies, exposing the scale of the human resource vacuum crippling governance in Jammu and Kashmir.
As one legislator put it bluntly, “The government has built hospitals without healers. Our healthcare system is turning into a graveyard of infrastructure.”
