Bijbehara: A 110 bed hospital in Bijbehara area of Anantnag with around 70 odd oxygen cylinders and no oxygen plant has been dedicated for Covid-19 treatment by the administration as the crisis appears to be deepening in Kashmir.
Recently the J&K administration decided to dedicate around 23 hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir to COVID-19 treatment including 15 in Kashmir and the rest in Jammu division.
In Anantnag district, which has a population of around 10 lakh, two hospitals were designated for the same including the Trauma Hospital in Bijbehara area of the district and a New Type PHC in Mattan area.
Interestingly the oxygen plant at the Trauma Hospital is far from completion and the hospital has around 70 oxygen cylinders for 110 beds. The hospital was hastily completed last year and was used as a quarantine centre and then a hospital for COVID positive pregnant women.
“Things, however, have changed and as we all can see how bad this second wave is. Is this hospital capable of catering to such untoward scenarios is the question because the experts do see the second wave hitting Kashmir valley sooner than later,” an employee at the hospital told Kashmir Reader.
The employee’s concerns were rightly placed. The hospital was completed last year in haste and the oxygen plant is yet to be completed even though most of the beds do have the oxygen valves fitted to them.
“But what purpose do the valves serve in absence of the oxygen plant,” the employee said. “So, it would be completely safe to say that the administration was relying on oxygen cylinders at the hospital which do not appear to be more than 70 in number.”
A doctor at the hospital said that the plant will take at least three months to get completed, “if the work is not halted at any stage”.
He acknowledged that the hospital had only 70 oxygen cylinders.
“But I think they will suffice for now. We have a good refilling process in place,” the doctor said, “Besides we have oxygen concentrators as well,”
The doctor, however, had apprehensions about the oxygen capacity of the hospital if things go out of hand. “For now it’s all good. Let’s see what the future has in store,” he added.
However, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Anantnag Dr Mukhtar Shah claimed that oxygen cylinders at the hospital were in the hundreds.
“Besides, the oxygen plant will be completed in a week’s time for the worthy Deputy Commissioner (DC) has directed for its quick completion given the present situation,” he told Kashmir Reader.
Sources at the hospital, however, maintain that it would be months, at least, before the plant is completed. For now there are only 5 to 6 patients undergoing treatment at the hospital but an inevitable surge in the number of cases is seriously going to test the hospital.

Suhail A Shah