Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Jan 3: Patients and doctors in Kupwara District Hospital in North Kashmir are suffering as the hospital is in shambles due to alleged mismanagement, lacks basic facilities and has shortage of life saving drugs.
The primary issue at the Kupwara hospital, which on papers is a Community Health Centre (CHC), but has been named as District Hospital, is the shortage of life saving drugs. The doctors, who spoke to Excelsior on the condition of anonymity, said they are forced to make patient referrals as most of the times there are no life saving drugs available in the hospital.
The medicos said that due to shortage of drugs and lack of health care facilities in the hospital they often face flak from the patients and their attendants. “But, what can we do when we lack facilities here? We are compelled to make referrals. Only patients and doctors are sufferers of this mismanagement,” they rued.
Sources said that the hospital is officially a Community Health Centre (CHC) but it has been named as District Hospital as the hospital board suggests. However, officially the District Hospital in this border district is at Handwara Town.
A senior official in Directorate of Health Services Kashmir said the Kupwara hospital has the 3-times more flow than Handwara hospital.
The Kupwara Hospital at present has no pediatrician and the doctors at the hospital refer such patients to Srinagar hospitals – which are located 100 kilometers away. Though a pediatrician was posted but he was transferred after a group of attendants thrashed him.
Besides, the hospital also has poor heating arrangements for the patients as well as doctors. Instead of central heating system, the gas heaters have been placed in hospital wards.
When contacted, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kupwara, Ghulam Nabi Lone claimed that the hospital is well-equipped with all facilities and there is no shortage of drugs. “Our hospital is well-equipped. There is no shortage and the patients get good healthcare facilities. This is incorrect that we don’t have good facilities here,” he told Excelsior. He, however, admitted that the officially the hospital is a CHC and not a District Hospital.
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