With healthcare delivery and medical education taking hit due to continued restrictions imposed in the operation of SKIMS Medical College Hospital Bemina (JVC) in the wake of its designation as Covid19 facility, J&K government is mulling to “take a call” on its functioning.
In March 2020, SKIMS Medical College Hospital, a multi-specialty facility was designated by the government for COVID19 only. The new assignment meant that hundreds of patients, who depended on the facility, and hundreds of its doctors were “redirected” creating hurdles for treatment and advice.
The designated status also affected hundreds of the students enrolled for MBBS and MD at the Medical College who recently staged protest demanding resumption of regular clinical classes.
Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education said that while the number of COVID19 patients admitted at the hospital had dropped significantly and it was “quite easy” to accommodate these patients in other hospitals having available the treatment facilities, but the government, according to him, was still “cautious”.
“With the new threats around the corner and with the apprehensions that we may need added beds if there is a spike in cases during winters, we are not going into any drastic curtailment in beds,” he said.
He, however, said that SKIMS MC had been directed to start OPDs in phased manner and also explore as to how the issues faced by the students could be addressed.
He said the situation brewing up in Europe—referring to the “new variant” of COVID19 and the spike in cases due to it— was a case in point and government could not let its guard down. “However, we may need to take a call about this Medical College,” he said.
Regarding medical education, the FC said that classes were going on along with the other medical colleges, however, due to COVID19, all academic activities stand modified across the educational institutes.
Prof Riyaz Untoo, principal SKIMS MC said the hospital and the medical college were not spacious enough to have both COVID19 and regular hospital work operational at the same time without difficulty. “However, we are starting admissions of patients soon. We have already started catering to OPD patients, although restricted,” he said.
Prof Untoo said that the hospital administration had charted out a plan to restrict a particular area of the hospital for COVID19.
He said that the medical college was following the MoHFW directions regarding class work. “Our students have unrestricted access to the faculty and are able to access whatever study material we have here,” he said. He however said that “absolutely normal” functioning of the medical college would take time.