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| Kishtwar hospital lacks stretchers, trolleys, oxygen | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
Early Times Report
kishtwar, July 1: The tragic accident in Keshwan area of Kishtwar on Monday, which has so far claimed lives of 35 people and injuries to 17 others, has exposed the ailing healthcare system at District Hospital Kishtwar.
Even stretchers are not available in the hospital, not to talk of oxygen cylinders, trolleys and life saving drugs.
As per the details available with "Early Times" there is only one oxygen cylinder in the District Hospital and one or two stretchers or trolleys.
As soon as the injured reach the hospital, the volunteers of local NGO, Ababeel, and general public find it difficult to shift the injured as well as the dead bodies to mortuary as same is not available with the hospital Kishtwar or anywhere else in the district, forcing the Ababeel volunteers to use few of the stretchers available with them.
On Monday, the number of injured and dead was too high that few stretchers available were not enough to cater the emergency. Talking to "Early Times", Umar Mir, Ababeel volunteer, informed that the District Hospital Kishtwar had only one oxygen cylinder available with it while 10 critically injured persons were in need of the oxygen.
Had oxygen been available in the hospital, Mir said, the lives of many people injured in the accident could have been saved. He said that the hospital had only one trolley in emergency ward. He said that Kishtwar hospital also laked infrastructure and medical facilities and demanded establishment of a medical college-cum-trauma hospital at Kishtwar.
Mir said that to their surprise, they never found regular paramedical staff including medical assistants posted in District Hospital Kishtwar attending their duties and emergencies. The Nursing Orderly and trainers from various nursing colleges join them in handling and treating the injured.
Another Ababeel volunteer Burhan Mir said that they feel difficulty in shifting the injured due to non-availability of critical ambulances in the Kishtwar hospital. He said that they shifted the injured in private vehicles and Tata mobiles and added that they were even not provided with a cloth to cover the dead bodies of females who were virtually in a naked position. He said that it was locals who provided them bed sheets and blankets to cover the dead bodies.
The health care system in the district was further exposed while shifting the injured to Kishtwar helipad for airlifting as in absence of ambulances, the mobile bunker of Jammu and Kashmir police, normally used in anti-terror operations, has been used to shift injured to helipad while other injured were put on beds to rush inside the IAF chopper. It was only after army provided stretchers that the injured were carried to IAF chopper.
A two and half year old injured girl who lost all her family members in the accident was lifted by a young men in his arms and dropped inside the chopper that later airlifted her.
"We are demanding medical college-cum-trauma hospital at Kishtwar. Let PM announce this, let MoS PMO announce this," said Burhan Dar, another rescuer. He said that state as well as government of India is earning Rs 3.50 crore per day from 390 MW Dool-Hasti Power project while government is executing power project with power generation capacity of around 5000 MW. "Can't the government effort a medical college for Kishtwar," Mir asked. |
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