Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital situated in the heart of the city of Jammu should have otherwise been getting a treatment which any symbol of heritage was entitled to. Its ideal central location with most of the ambiance of the classic masonry and workmanship still standing magnificently has witnessed many developments , ups and downs , services rendered to the suffering humanity by many renowned Doctors and other medical staff, lives to its name and fame till date as on an average, it is catering to more than 1500 patients daily. It has two lifts to cater to the needs of the patients and their attendants but for the last 20 days, both the lifts are rendered idle as they are not functioning at all.
The inconvenience caused to the people can well be imagined especially the patients who have to use steep stairs . The patients largely comprise women expectants and those newly blessed with motherhood . Because of its central location as also brimming with those patients referred to from various district and sub- district hospitals as the necessary infrastructure to deal with emergency and critical cases is in utter deficit in those centres, this hospital remains overcrowded. Besides, the hospital being the lone tertiary care maternity hospital in Jammu region , getting medical treatment from here is largely preferred.
The difficulties faced by the patients which are going to be referred to ICUs can well be gauged by the fact that the critical care units are on the first floor of the hospital . The position in respect of the Paediatric Block is not less effected as the Block is in a four storey building with one ward on each floor and in the absence of the facilities of lift , the patients and their attendants have trying moments to get to the concerned wards. Moreover, in the absence of the facilities of reception , locating patients by friends and relatives during visiting hours becomes all the more difficult especially the patients herein being ailing children in wards 20 and 21 located on 3rd and 4th floors respectively . Carrying ailing children mostly new born babies and climbing steep stairs to reach peak floors should have invited the attention of the Hospital management towards taking steps to get the lifts repaired and put to use.
The state of affairs of the quality of Hospital administration and management of things can be visualised by an unbelievable part of the entire story that these lifts and elevators were put to use only some six to seven months back after they were non functional for years together. Either the administration has no funds or there is as usual the same blame game and passing the buck from one table to the other , from the mechanical wing to the administrative wing and vice versa and those in charge of ‘after sales service’ or managing maintenance of such equipments. The patients and their attendants would not mind if asked to pay for using these facilities to help the administration generate revenues which when collected, could be used for repairs and maintenance. We fail to understand as to whether the Hospital is having technical staff engaged as regular employees or on contractual basis in order to remain available in the hospital to address such problems. This hospital should have been a model hospital with all reasonably required facilities, with better management of crowding , with no parking mess as even those who had nothing got to do with the hospital keeping their vehicles parked in and around the hospital . However, we hope that the problem would be addressed at an early date.
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