The Valley’s lone chest disease is gasping for breath owing to the lack essential medical equipments. Even the equipment that is available in the hospital is lying defunct since months, giving a tough time to patients visiting the hospital.

Ultra sound machine, as per patients and technicians, is lying defunct from at least three months, forcing patients to get the test done from private testing centres operating in the area.

“Doctors are asking us to undergo USG tests, given the fact they know that the machine is not working,” said Hafiza, a patient who had come here to get herself examined.

She says that most of the patients are forced to get the tests done from the market, which is only adding to their hardships.

If sources are to be believed then Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) and Polysomnography are also not being done at the hospital from past few weeks. The machinery meant to perform these tests are also lying defunct, with technicians performing PFT on other machines, to manage the crisis, on which only ten PFT tests are done per day.

“This is nothing compared to the rush of the patients and the actual need of the hospital,” added the sources.

“The PFT machine is lying defunct from last several weeks and nobody is trying to get it fixed. Now, as we see that all the patients cannot afford to get such tests done from the private clinics. We are performing this test on another machine, on which we can only perform at least ten tests per day,” said an employee, wishing not to be named. 

When this reporter brought the matter into the notice of Medical Superintendent, Dr. Jehangir, he seemed to be aware of the issue.

The MS later expressed his inability to talk on the issue, stating “higher authorities have directed them not speak to the press on any issue,” he, however confirmed the fact that some machines are defunct, and they are trying to sort out the issue.

This reporter also met Head of the Department, Dr. Naveed Shah, who said that he has several times reported about the non-functioning of machinery in the hospital, however, so far, there has been no development in this regard. “I have at least thrice written to the higher-ups regarding the issues, but the situation has not changed as of now,” he added.

“Patients are coming to me and are reporting the non-functioning of USG, PFT and Polysomnography machines. I initially reported the issue to the officials and then, once again wrote to them asking them to expedite the process,” he added.

Pertinently, Chest Diseases Hospital, one of the oldest hospitals in Srinagar, seems to be neglected by the authorities, as apart from non-functioning of the machinery, there are severe sanitation issues in and around the hospital.

On Sunday, this newspaper reported the issue of stray dogs roaming freely in the hospital compound, with concerned sanitation authorities turning a blind eye over the issue.

Guest