Srinagar, July 1: The tertiary care SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura main entrance and its adjacent area presently looks like a busy bus terminal with scores of passenger buses queuing up along both sides of the road and vendors illegally occupying major portions of footpaths.
 The half a kilometer road stretch from the SKIMS’ main entry gate to its maternity hospital always remain choked due to movement of large number of passenger vehicles, en-route to Buchpora and other areas, particularly during peak hours, causing huge inconvenience to the visiting patients and their attendants. “With SKIMS being a sole tertiary care centre, every second for the critically ill patient and the accidental trauma cases being ferried in the ambulance or any other private vehicle counts. If caught in the traffic mess for few seconds, such a patient can die for want of resuscitation and proper medicare,” doctors in the hospital told Greater Kashmir.
 They said attendants of many patients, especially those terminally ill, visiting the Institute for treatment in private vehicles, had been frequently complaining about the traffic jams in the area.
 “Many  times the attendants accompanying the terminally ill patients and trauma cases in their cars have to come down from the vehicle and beg the drivers and conductors to pave way,” the doctors quoting the attendants said, adding many passengers vehicles were also seen dotting both sides of the roads, waiting for passengers and the drivers many  times fighting with each other over the boarding of people.
 They said the patients visiting the OPD of the Institute also face immense hardships due to ceaseless movement of vehicles.
 “The elderly  patients have to seek help from passerby to cross the road,” the doctors said.
 Official sources reveal that the two lane road’s major portion was Institute’s property. “The road leads to the 40 bedded maternity hospital, faculty quarters, nursing college and the upcoming 100 bedded maternity hospital of the Institute, the work on which is going on,” they said, adding the patients visiting maternity hospital and the faculty also faces huge inconvenience due to continuous movement of vehicles as a bus stand had also been established on the Institute land in the vicinity.
 They said, the Government with an objective to ease out the traffic rush on the SKIMS road conceived and constructed 90 feet road. “However, the authorities failed to divert and manage the traffic on the road stretch, which opens near the Soura police station,” officials said, adding the diversion of traffic on the road would provide a huge respite to the patients visiting SKIMS. They said an underground tunnel for vehicles, if constructed, could also ease out the traffic on the road stretch.
 According to the officials, the pavements of the road are also illegally occupied by vendors in front of the police station, causing immense hardships to the pedestrians. “The police and other concerned agencies have vehemently failed to dislodge them as a result of which some of them had now occupied the road, thereby furthering the traffic jams,” the officials said adding the presence of vendors was also causing tremendous inconvenience to the patients and their attendants.  
 When contacted, SP Traffic Maqsud-u-Zaman, “We have our deployment and whatever possible by us we are doing that. It’s the responsibility of people indulging in wrong parking outside the hospital. We have been challaning those violating the rules.” 
 According to the medicos, they haven’t seen any tertiary care hospital with such a raucous atmosphere. “The tertiary health centres in other parts have serene ambience which proves beneficial for the recuperation of patients,” they added.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST