People in Jammu facing great dilemma in govt hospitals
Pakistan Times Kashmir Desk

JAMMU: Non-functional dialysis machines, supply of expired medicines and non-availability of doctors at the hospitals here and at Srinagar are playing havoc with the health of suffering people.

A news report in daily Tribune said, with tap water running in the dialysis machines and expired drugs being issued to the patients, the functioning of the two government medical colleges and other hospitals in occupied Kashmir is going from bad to worse. Poor patients run from pillar to post as the doctors hardly find time to attend to their duties in government hospitals. Infact, they are busy practicing in private hospitals and clinics.

The patients complain that doctors and Para-medical staff are generally insensitive towards them in the hospitals. It is worth mentioning that New Delhi has approved a grant of Rs 100 crores to the medical college hospital here so as to upgrade it to the level of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The government medical colleges here and at Srinagar are in an awful condition and no steps have been taken to improve their condition.

The emergency unit and other wards are littered with the used syringes and waste material. The general wards stink as no attention is being paid towards cleanliness. The shocking incident of the tap water being pumped into the dialysis machines has rocked the medical college here and the government has constituted a committee to look into the matter.

Three of the five-dialysis units are out of order and tap water, full of bacteria, is reportedly being pumped into the two other machines that are generally used in the emergency cases. Several other machines and equipment in the Radiology Department and other sections are mostly out of order and patients are thus forced to get the tests done from private clinics. There are allegations that a high-level nexus is behind this.

Another incident of expired medicines being issued to patients in a hospital has come to light. An employee of the hospital at Udhampur was caught some time ago while pilfering the medicines. The condition of the blood bank is equally deplorable. Proper screening of blood to prevent spread of AIDS is reportedly not being done scientifically. Effective steps have not been taken by the medical authorities in tackling tuberculosis, which has again started showing an upward trend in the troubled state.●