Heavy patient rush and lack of requisite number of doctors during night hours leads to chaotic scenes here in south Kashmir’s Sub District Hospital (SDH) Tral.
According to sources, doctors and para-medics are somehowmanaging the huge influx of patients during the day time here but after 4.00 PMthe healthcare in the hospital turns worse.
Located in the hilly area, the hospital is one of thecrowded healthcare facilities in the sub-district catering to a population ofmore than hundred villages. Though three to four doctors see the patients inthe hospital OPD during the day time which approximately registers thousandpatients a month, however, during the night hours a single doctor has to handlethe patients visiting the hospital for emergency treatment.
Chaotic and noisy scenes can be witnessed in the hospitalafter 4 PM due to the huge rush of patients needing emergency care. Thisreporter on Thursday night heard many patients and attendants screaming inanger over the hospital authorities after a single doctor on duty failed tohandle the patient rush.
Many people posted the videos of the helplessness ofpatients on social networking sites, questioning the government over lack ofdoctors at the hospital.
“This hospital is only hope for hundreds of villages.Most of the patients visiting the hospital in the evening hours need emergencycare and many of them have to be admitted. How is it possible for a singledoctor to handle such huge rush?” asked a local, Javaid Ahmad.
Another elderly man Ghulam Rasool who was attending hisailing mother told Greater Kashmir, it is bizzare that hospital authoritiesjust depute a single doctor for night duty in such an overcrowded hospital.
A source inside the hospital said that most of the doctorshesitate to perform night duties and hospital administration somehow bring doctorsfrom primary health centers.
“See we have to face the ire of both the hospitalmanagement and patients. It is actually the failure of the authorities thatmess up the things every evening here. Even the locals have demanded at leasttwo doctors to be deputed for night duty but authorities don’t give a damnabout it,” said a doctor wishing not to get quoted.
The patient rush at times, he added, delays his dinner uptomidnight.
“Had there been two doctors on night duty there wouldhave been no such chaotic scenes,” the doctor said.
Locals said that they have many times approached authoritiesrequesting them to improve the healthcare at the hospital keeping in view itslocation and patient influx but nothing was done.
An official from the health department said that he willtake up the matter with the government. “This hospital should obviouslyhave two doctors during night hours. Bit now I will take up the matter withgovernment,” he said.