Srinagar, Aug 8: The continued crisis and curfew in Kashmir has taken a heavy toll on both the routine and important surgeries in the Valley hospitals in the wake of the “shortage of surgical material.”
 For the past one-week, hundreds of surgeries of different types have been either cancelled or postponed, much to the annoyance of patients, who accuse the government of playing with their lives. This time around, only the emergency surgeries are being conducted, especially those related to trauma.
 Informed sources said the SK Institute of Medical Sciences at Soura has deferred over 200 surgeries in the past one week. “We normally conduct 60 to 70 routine surgeries per day. We have not cancelled but deferred them by some days as we were facing shortage of a few surgical disposals including oxygen,” said the SKIMS Medical Superintendent, Dr Syed Amin Tabish.
 He however promised that the surgeries would resume from Monday.
 “I have today issued an order that all the surgeries should be conducted as per routine from Monday. The orders shall be strictly implemented,” he told Greater Kashmir.
 The cancelled or postponed surgeries pertain to departments like Urology, General Surgery, Gastroenterology, Paediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Cardiology and Oncology. “We had to defer the surgeries of some cancer patients as well,” said a SKIMS medico, insisting not to be named.
 He however said postponement of routine surgeries was inevitable. “You can’t conduct a surgery if you are running short of any item you require during surgery. We were running short of supplies and therefore postponed the surgeries,” the medico said, adding, “Also this time the priority was the trauma patients who thronged the hospital like anything. If we normally receive 20 trauma patients a day, these days we received scores of trauma cases mostly critical ones. So they had to be treated first.”
 Pertinently in Valley hospitals, at least 600 people—injured in action by police and paramilitary forces—have been admitted.
 In Bone and Joints Hospital at Barzalla, hardly a routine surgery has taken place in the past two weeks. “This time the preference naturally is the trauma cases. We would normally conduct only five emergency surgeries per day, but right now we conduct about 20 to 25,” said a doctor at the hospital.
 The Lala Ded and SMHS hospitals also conduct emergency surgeries only. “One of the problems is that patients who have to undergo surgery are unable to reach the hospital in curfew. Even our ambulance drivers and staff face difficulty in reaching the hospital. So naturally it will impact the routine surgeries. But we do conduct some surgeries like appendicitis,” said the SMHS Medical Superintendent, Dr Waseem Qureshi.
 Cancellation of the routine surgeries has angered the patients. “I had to undergo a surgery at SKIMS, but I was asked to go back and come next month. What kind of a tertiary care hospital is this when they don’t have supplies in store?” asked Ghulam Nabi, a resident of Varmul. “It is unfortunate that our healthcare is in doldrums. The government must immediately ensure that hospitals have adequate drugs and other paraphernalia in store so that patients don’t suffer.”

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST