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| Mandatory precautions must before opening hospitals, educational institutions | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 28: The loss of medical equipment including X-Ray machines, MRI scanners, operation theatres, life support systems at the city's SMHS Hospital estimated at Rs. 200 crores, doctors at this main hospital of Srinagar say restoring the facility to Pre-flood status could take months.
A senior doctor at the SMHS hospital told Early Times that starting indoor patient care would be impossible unless all the needed medical preparedness in terms of equipment is acquired before that.
The senior doctor said at present even the different wards at this hospital have to be fully sanitised, sterilised and inspected before these are declared fit to admit patients for indoor treatment.
"It is possible to start OPD at the hospital but deciding to take patients for in-hospital care would be medically imprudent," the doctor told Early Times.
What is true of the SMHS hospital in Srinagar is also true of all other hospitals except the SKINS Soura and the JLMH at Rainawari.
Opening a government office after the recent floods is quite different from opening a hospital where sick people come to become healthy. Nobody would risk going to a hospital for treatment of one ailment and take the risk of returning with another ailment test might be of a far more serious nature than the one needed to be treated.
The calamitous situation in Srinagar City cannot be taken as having ended because the water level in rivers, lakes and inundated areas has come down.
Floods of the magnitude that hit Srinagar city and many other parts of the Valley need not to be dismissed because a semblance of normalcy is intended to be achieved.
What is true of hospitals in Srinagar City is also true of hundreds of schools and colleges in the Valley.
It is an administrative imperative to ensure that the buildings housing these schools and colleges are safe for students to attend classes at these places. The first requirement is to ensure that the buildings are safe so far as their structure is concerned since these have remained under flood waters for many days. The second essential aspect is to ensure the resulting dampness and the possibility of students catching different infections like respiratory and gastro-intestinal infections are ruled out.
Kashmir has been fortunate in just one respect during the recent floods. The number of human loss has been comparatively less than feared. Not that the loss of even one person is acceptable in any situation but given the severity and the magnitude of these floods many more people could have perished.
Now the least the state government can do is to ensure it does not take any hurried decision that would endanger the lives of the people because the administration is in a hurry to prove that it has taken full control of the post flood situation. |
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