| 36 yrs on, SKIMS craves for basic infrastructure | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Dec 5: The Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar celebrated its 36th annual day on Wednesday, but there was not much to celebrate.
The SKIMS is considered tertiary care hospital of Kashmir. However, after nearly four decades of its establishment, the SKIMS is craving even for basic facilities.
Even on annual day celebration, there were many speakers who seemed not happy with the working of the institution. Take for instance, former chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who seemed not happy with the research done by the SKIMS faculty.
"Don't focus only on patient care. Very least research is being done here. The research is important, only then you will succeed," he told the faculty members.
"I had kidney transplant and cancer is major problem…diabetes is emerging and you have to find its cure. You do more research and find a cure for diabetes and SKIMS will receive Nobel prize," Farooq said.
Farooq regretted that SKIMS does not has its own auditorium. "SKIMS is being called a big institution, but still it has to celebrate its annual day at SKICC," he said and announced Rs 1 crore for construction of auditorium for SKIMS from his constituency development fund.
However, a senior doctor at SKIMS said that Farooq was only passing the buck. "This institute lacks a lot. Even PET scan has been introduced in this year only. Why did Farooq not help in overcoming deficiencies of infrastructure when he and his son ruled the state," the doctor asked, wishing anonymity. The doctor said that even the critical care patients have to wait months for their surgeries. "Poor patients are suffering. Even on Wednesday, the normal work was halted as the faculty members were busy in celebrating the annual day," the doctor said, Similarly, Advisor to Governor K Vijay Kumar asked the faculty to enhance their skills. "Doctors and nurses shall not feel threatened and cannot be replaced by machines. But you have to acquire the skills," said Kumar, who was chief guest on the occasion in absence of Governor Satya Pal Malik who skipped the function. Kumar indirectly targeted the successive governments for keeping the projects lingering over the years. "We cleared several projects for improving health infrastructure, which were kept lingering," he said. |
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