Shopian: In an officially designated “hilly district” of more than three lakh inhabitants, there is no thyroid analyser in the dozen health centres and one district hospital run by the government here in Shopian.
Lack of such basic diagnostic facilities not only causes inconvenience to patients with thyroid ailments but they are also forced to wait for days till the hospital authorities get the tests done from private laboratories outside the district.
Insiders in the district hospital told Kashmir Reader that only samples for thyroid tests are being collected at the hospital, the reports of which arrive after many days from laboratories elsewhere.
Firdousa Akhter, a thyroid patient, told Kashmir Reader that she has been facing problems ever since she was diagnosed with the ailment. “I was diagnosed with a thyroid ailment three years ago and since then the hospital authorities in Shopian have only collected samples and given us reports after a week’s time,” she said.
Tariq Ahmad, father of a seven-year-old girl who is suffering from thyroid ailment, said that due to lack of a thyroid analyser in the district, his daughter has to miss school and tuition twice a week because she has to be taken to hospital first for sample collection and then for the report and the doctor’s consultation.
In southern Kashmir all the district hospitals, and even some primary health centres, have facilities of thyroid analysers but Shopian is the lone district where all its health centres lack the facility.
A doctor posted at district hospital Shopian told Kashmir Reader that there used to be a thyroid analyser but it developed some snag, and has not been replaced by the authorities since then.
Shopian district, according to the government’s census, has more than three lakh population. According to doctors, for some years now the number of thyroid-related ailments has risen, mostly in young people and particularly in women, which has further increased the need for a thyroid analyser in the district’s hospitals.
Medical Superintendent of district hospital Shopian, Muhammad Ismail, told Kashmir Reader that his office has written to higher authorities for a thyroid analyser but it has not yet been sent. “We hope a machine would be dispatched to this hospital very soon,” he said, adding that tests from private labs cost more money as well as time.

Raashid Hassan