A woman reduced to mere skeleton was struggling to go upstairs. Two persons aided her to walk up the stairs. She was in unbearable pain. Her forced breathing attested to her condition. It was more horrific for her to climb the stairs than to face the dreaded disease – cancer.
The lift at SKIMS State Cancer Institute had turned defunct soon after its inauguration. The authorities were in know of it. Indeed, administrative inertia was reigning supreme. It is impossible to describe the suffering the patients were to face.
This scenario was bound to catch the attention of any sensitive person around, especially an attendant. A functional lift in the apex Institute could have saved patients from the pain they unnecessarily were undergoing. The torment seemed to go unending for certain requests seeking mending of the machine had fallen flat.
What gnawed at one’s mind the most was how come an Institute that has the distinction of being the Kashmir’s most famed tertiary care hospital lacked a functional lift for cancer patients.
What made the authorities act as mere spectators, is shocking. Could they not sense the pain of the already painful souls? What made the authorities allow thousands of patients battling cancer, to suffer on this count? It all needed answers.
I asked a doctor, why the lift was not functional. Prompt was his response; “I too want it functional for these poor patients, but who cares. You know the system”. Circumstantial indication was that there had been a constant effort to take up the issue with authorities.
But it had proven like seeds in a sterile milieu. Momentarily, it occurred to me that any effort would perhaps amount to wading into a morass to find something microscopic. Now, was it simply to shrug the issue off, or was an effort still required for the patients.
Do news reports still carry an impact, something weighed on my mind? Eventually, on apprising the executive editor of this newspaper, a story was published. Fortunately the story worked. The authorities at SKIMS acted swiftly to make the lift operational.
Incidentally, a couple of days ago, I had a chance to be at the same place again. What I learnt is that the lift had been made operational within 24 hours after the story was published. Fortunately, the lift is functional now.
The sole question is; why the lift was made operational only after the newspaper story. What precipitated the action of the authorities to make the machine functional? Were they not aware that the lift was a must for the cancer ward? Why were they so apathetic?
SAny company that sets up a lift in any government building takes up the responsibility to ensure that the machine remains functional. The hired mechanics of these companies are available on call.
It is their duty to rush to the spot to correct the machine. Even the lifts in private buildings are taken care of by the companies that instal them. Is this the region where the norm is to govern in a skewed manner, that is to install machines and don’t bother about it later, even if it troubles patients.
The question remains. What about the sophisticated machines having developed defects and lying functionless. Shall the SKIMS administration ever realize the agony of thousands of patients who suffer because of its inertia to fix these machines? Hopefully, the inertia will give way to administrative action.