Rural healthcare hit | SDH Uri suffers in absence of sanctioned posts of doctors, other facilities

Srinagar, Dec 2: The Sub-District Hospital (SDH) Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is without sanctioned posts of several doctors, taking a toll on the healthcare of this rural area.

“The hospital lacks the posts of ENT, Sonologist, Ophthalmologist, and Radiologist,” an official at SDH Uri said.

   

Locals in Uri said that they had to face a tough time as the Ultrasound at SDH Uri was only done twice in a week.

“They don’t have any specific doctor for this. They have appointed a Medical Officer who does it twice in a week. He has also been assigned the same duty for PHC Mohra and PHC Sultandaki. We demand the ultrasound should be done on a daily basis in this hospital,” a delegation of locals said.

“If the government wants, they can create these posts in this remote hospital to ease the woes of the residents here,” they said.

Locals said that since many areas of Uri fall along the Line of Control (LoC), pregnant women face hardships.

“These areas are far off from the main town. In absence of the ultrasound facility in Uri, women are forced to travel to Baramulla and Srinagar hospitals,” said Mudasir Ahmad, a resident of Garkote village.

He said that though there were two private USG facilities in Uri, everyone could not afford to go there.

Tanveer Ahmad, a local of main town Uri, said that the hospital should increase the posts of consultants.

“Currently, the hospital has a single gynaecologist, anesthetist, and a surgeon. At least there should be two doctors of each department. A single doctor can’t handle so much patient load,” he said.

Locals said that the 60-bedded hospital lacks CT scan machine, hotline service, and accommodation facility for the doctors.

“As no government accommodation is available for the doctors in Uri, they prefer to get transferred to Srinagar hospitals or nearby to their homes,” locals said.

“The posts of the Community Health Officer (CHO) and Health Educator (HE) are lying vacant and have not been filled till date. More than 50 posts of paramedic staff are lying vacant too,” officials said.

The hospital caters to a population of 1.30 lakh from over 100 villages and also several villages along the LoC including Charunda, Hathlanga, Kamalkote, Mothal, and Sourha.

Located a few kilometres from the LoC, SDH Uri has been attending the cases of cross-border shelling and landmine victims.

Since the hospital lacks the trauma care, most of the critical cases are shifted to Baramulla and Srinagar.

Block Medical Officer (BMO), Uri, Muhammad Ramzan Mir told Greater Kashmir that they had sent a number of proposals to the government in this regard.

“However, we haven’t received any response so far,” he said.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Director of Health Services Kashmir Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, said, “I will check with the BMO Uri on this.”

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