Where are the NGO's?
Valley's lone leprosy hospital remains a neglected lot
Syed Yasir (Kashmir Times)
SRINAGAR: The leprosy patients, admitted to the valley's lone leprosy hospital, continue to remain a neglected lot. The hundred odd leprosy patients in the hospital suffer because of the lack of very basic facilities like proper accommodation and medical facilities.
The patients admitted in the Leper Colony have been the worst sufferers. After getting shifted to hospital here from various far-flung areas decades ago, they have struck quite a chord with each other. These patients, after having formed strong social bonding over the years within the hospital, believe that this place is more than a home for them. But today these patients feel absolutely neglected as this place continues to degenerate due to a poor infrastructure.
Situated on the banks of Dal Lake, the hospital campus has become a route for the foreign tourists to commute to the nearby houseboats, troubling the patients with vehicular pollution and moreover a risk to life. "A huge number of vehicles pass through the hospital campus every day and it becomes quite risky to even go for a walk on my wheelchair," said a patient in the hospital, who is living in the hospital for more than 45 years now and has lost both his arms and hands due to leprosy.
The patients are blaming the successive governments for the improper functioning of the hospital. They, however, praise a number of local NGOs and people for their voluntary support. "Although we have a support staff to serve us here, the higher authorities don't even visit us", the patients said, adding that leprosy patient who along with her family, stays in one of the congested mud houses constructed decades ago.
Apart from the few newly constructed rooms, the Leprosy hospital presents the look of an ancient heritage site, with the patient wards housed in muddy structures and improper drainage system running across the campus. Ironically, while a huge water filtration plant, based right in the hospital campus has been a great menace for the patients, their taps often go dry.
The patients after strongly reacting to the concerned authorities proposed plan of moving this hospital to Khonmoh a few months back, seem to be stuck between an absolute political and bureaucratic failure to properly run the only leprosy hospital of the valley. "They (authorities) wanted to shift all of us to a nine room health centre away from the city. Rather than taking us to such an odd place it is better if they develop this place," said another patient.
With every passing day, the degraded leper colony instead of a redressal is receiving more wounds and the patients continue to bleed (literally). Most of the patients suffering from various skin and eye ailments complain of inadequate drugs available at the dispensary and have also stressed for an ambulance at this residential hospital
No comments:
Post a Comment