Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 19: Set up in 1959 as postgraduate Department of Orthopedics, the Bone and Joint Hospital Srinagar is running on crutches with no main basic facilities. The World Bank report has declared the existing building of the hospital "unsafe".
When the Bone and Joint Hospital was established it was thought that its miseries would be over and the future generations would receive good care and treatment. Six decades down the line, nothing has change in this 150 bed hospital, where two to three patients have to share a single bed or spend nights on trolleys.
Life has not been easy for Sheena after her right leg was fractured in an accident three weeks ago. For 10 days she had no relief at Bone and Joint Hospital Srinagar, despite given some medications.
The doctors had advised her to follow a particular posture for a week, which she couldn't do as the hospital had not the space to accommodate her. She had to share a bed with another patient, which led to deterioration of her health.
"Last month when I took my mother hospital for the check, there was no bed available," Sheena's son Obaid said. "We kept her on the trolley for three hours as no bed was available," he said. There are hundreds of patients like Sheena who visit the Kashmir's Bone and Joint Hospital daily, and go through such an ordeal.
Owais Ahmad, a resident of Qazigund had fracture in his arm earlier this month. "I was admitted to the hospital for a week. The hospital has only one X-ray plant which is not able to cater to the needs of huge number of patients," he said. "I had to wait for three hours to get my X-ray done."
Owais said the sanitation of the hospital has "deteriorated" so much even the water is over flowing from the toilets, leaving a slippery surface outside. "Several patients, especially elderly persons, struggle their way through the sheet of water coming out from a toilet in Emergency Ward. The condition of toilets is so horrible that it cannot be used but we have no other choice," Bashir Ahmad, a resident of Cement Bridge Baramulla said.
The patients and the officials said there is no drinking water available besides washrooms are in a dilapidated condition. "The sanitation and lack of beds is main problem in the hospital," an official of the hospital said. The official said the successive governments have shown no concern for up gradation of the hospital. "The hospital administration can't do anything unless the government takes measures for its up gradation," the official said. "Thousands of patients along with their relatives come to the hospital every day. The maintenance of toilets is a problem. We don't have proper security available here, who could restrict the number of attendants." |
