Beyond Comprehension - The Dismal State of Hospital Care in Kashmir

The only elevator in Srinagar's Bone and Joint (B&J) Hospital has not worked for 26 years!


B&J hospital has only one stretcher, lift defunct for 26 years
Shariq Mohammad (Daily Etalaat)

Srinagar: In the Government Hospital for Bone and Joint Surgery at Barzulla here, it is a common sight to find attendants carrying patients with compound fractures and plastered legs and arms on their shoulders because there are not enough stretchers or wheelchairs.

“I found there is only one stretcher in this ward. I haven’t seen a wheelchair so far,” Ghulam Mohammad, an attendant of a patient in the emergency ward told this newspaper.

A doctor wishing anonymity said if a patient with fracture in the leg has to limp for around 200 yards for an X-ray there are chances that his injury would get worse.

"My son carried me on his back from the emergency ward to the X-ray room,” an old man said. His son, Abdul Ahad, said he had requested a nurse for a stretcher, but “she said I would have to wait” because the attendants of some other patient had taken the only stretcher available in the emergency ward."

“It was torturous because I apprehended my father’s condition would go worse if he fell; you know it is so unwieldy to carry a person on your back particularly when he is injured,” Ahad said.

The inconvenience caused to the patients is further complicated by the defunct elevator. According to the Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Ramzan Mir, the elevator is defunct for the past 26 years. He said the hospital authorities have had requested the government for funds to repair it. Dr Mir, however, said there was sufficient stock of stretchers.

When contacted, Principal Government Medical College, Dr Mushtaq Shah sounded confused over the issue. “Either I’ve released funds for the elevator at B&J Hospital or I’m in the process of releasing them,” he said. Dr Shah admitted that the elevator was lying defunct for the past 26 years.