Winters are very difficult times in Kashmir. Although the amenities now available to a common household in Kashmir could not have been imagined of some decades back, but there is a vast population that faces multiple difficulties during these months.
In the public services delivery sector there are some areas that are particularly in need of special arrangements during winters.
One such place where the services must be made available with the dip in temperatures is hospital. This is the place where people are already distraught and depressed.
Those who are admitted to hospitals for various ailments are usually in a state of trauma, and those who attend them also find the time in hospitals very troubling. In such a condition if the arrangements to defeat the mounting cold are not in place one can imagine the plight of people struggling with various diseases in the hospitals. Besides, cold almost invariably complicates any diseased state.
In fact, the healthier ones who attend the patients are also susceptible to catch sickness if the heating arrangement are not adequate. So putting in place proper heating arrangements in hospitals must be considered as an emergency service, and no compromises should be done on this.
Reportedly most hospitals in Kashmir start their heating systems very late, despite the fact that minimum temperature starts falling to zero level. This should not have been the case. In fact, the arrangements should be such that minimum temperature should never fall below a particular mark within hospital spaces. It should never be subject any time period specifications when the heating systems can be turned operational, or otherwise. The discretion must be with the hospital administration to use the facility.
It is good that the concerned higher authority convened a meeting over winter preparedness, and passed on the required directions to the concerned officials in the health department. The healthcare department should, in fact, work on a futuristic plan where such arrangements are always in an operational state. The hospital administration should also be sensitised, and trained to act in a professional manner in this regard. After all providing services to patients is not a favour done to them.