*Patients forced to move to private nursing homes
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 22: The patients suffering with chronic kidney diseases are forced to move to private clinics as Dialysis unit of Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) Jammu have been shut temporarily due to some technical snag in the Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plant of the Hospital.
Official sources told Excelsior that around two weeks ago, the lone RO Plant in SSH Jammu developed some technical snag and since then, the Dialysis unit of the Hospital is lying closed and the patients reaching there are being asked to go for dialysis in other associated hospitals.
However, the irony is that there are only 2 dialysis machines in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Jammu and 2 in Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital. As per sources, the SSH Jammu has 18 dialysis machines where at an average 40 patients used to undergo dialysis per day in three shifts before the RO Plant went out of order but GMCH Jammu and SMGS Hospital together is catering only 8-10 patients per day.
“The remaining patients are forced to move to private nursing homes for undergoing dialysis by spending their hard earned money but the poor and downtrodden patients have no alternative other than waiting for their turn in GMCH Jammu and SMGS Hospital or restart of dialysis services in SSH Jammu,” sources lamented.
Meanwhile, a doctor on the conditions of anonymity told Excelsior that the RO Plant of the Hospital has lived its life and as per the TBS India company, which provides maintenance services to medical devices of the Hospital, the RO Plant has become nor-repairable and there is need to install a fresh RO Plant in the Hospital to run Dialysis unit of the Hospital.
He further shared that as a temporary basis, 2 dialysis machines of the Hospital has been shifted to GMCH Jammu so that more patients may undergo dialysis there till a new RO Plant is installed in SSH Jammu or the existing plant is repaired. He added that the process of procuring a new RO Plant is already underway.
When contacted, Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma, Principal and Dean, GMC and Associated Hospitals, Jammu said that they are procuring 2 new RO plants for SSH Jammu so that dialysis services can be run uninterrupted. She said that they have shifted two additional dialysis machines in both GMC and SMGS Hospital and since the dialysis services have been affected at SSH, around 350 patients have undergone dialysis in GMC and SMGS Hospital.
Responding to a question whether the old RO Plant at SSH is repairable or not, Dr Shashi said that she cannot say anything as different versions are coming from different engineers. However, she said that the existing RO Plant has its life till September this year.
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