WE THE PEOPLE
Shopian District Hospital Presents Bleak Picture, Lacks Basic Infrastructural Facilities
Hence People Urge Govt., to provide it Man-power and Diagnostic facilities to meet Day to Day demands of Patients
By: MNS/ Makhdoomi
Srinagar: In our Survey to find out status of Hospitals in Kashmir valley, we now inform our Readers about the Hospital in Shopian. Located in the south and south-west extremity of Kashmir valley, Shopian lies in close proximity of Pir Panjal mountain ranges. It is bound by district Kulgam on its east and district Budgam on its north-west and is flanked by district Pulwama in the north and the districts of Rajouri and Poonch on its south and south-west respectively.
The District derives its name from its town “SHOPIAN”, about which Frederic Drew, while justifying the basis of its nomenclature, states that it is the distortion of word “SHAH-PAYAN”, i.e., Royal Stay.
Just a few days back the correspondent of the “Mirror of Kashmir” travelled to this District to have an overview of the function of the District Hospital Shopian. This hospital presents a very gloomy picture as there is almost no positive face to report.
The Shopian District Hospital would definitely rate among the worst health care facilities of the Jammu And Kashmir State. The hospital is virtually in shambles with very poor infrastructure.
The Out Patient Department (OPD) sections are placed in very poor and less spacious small rooms. These sections present a look of slum rather than a hospital OPD. The patients are waiting for their respective turn like a flock of sheep. There are no proper seating arrangements for patients and their attendants. The huge queues of patients could be seen anxiously waiting for their respective turn outside these awkward looking OPD sections.
The bed strength of the hospital is also quite feeble and even the Inpatient Department presents a bleak picture. The Emergency department seems to be a namesake department as the facilities and other realms of infrastructure are minimum out here. The patients and their attendants point out that on every instance the patients requiring emergency care are referred to other hospital on account of bleak realities related to the overall condition of emergency ward.
Ghulam Rasool, a patient attendant said, “On most of the occasions a patient in need of emergency care is referred to other hospitals and even those requiring minimum care are more often than not referred to other hospitals as human resource and other facilities in this hospital are minimum. The OPD sections of the hospital present a very grim look and look makeshift tents rather than comprehensive OPD Sections. In nutshell, the overall scenario related to facilities and infrastructure in this hospital is quite shameful and this hospital demands a great attention from the concerned stakeholders for any betterment to be had.”
The patients and their attendants also state that doctors in the hospital report very late to their duties and are very careless in their overall attitude towards patients needs.
Fayaz Khan, a patient said, “The District Hospital Shopian would unarguably be the worst District Hospital in the entire South Kashmir Belt. The patients and their attendants prefer to visit other hospitals on account of laggard function of this hospital in terms of overall facilities. The human resource employed here is insufficient and inefficient. The paradigms related to overall infrastructure are very poor. This looks more off a dispensary than a District Hospital.”
Without a hint of ambiguity, the Shopian District Hospital presents a shameful picture wherein the rot is very deep and demands immediate attention from the concerned stakeholders. The people of this District are highly hopeful of remedial actions very soon in this regard. .................................................(To be continued)
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