People are decrying about the shabby condition of the much hyped Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), accusing the doctors and the administration of taking them for a ride. They say there are no arrangements out in place by the authorities which could have ensured the better health care services for the people thronging this place from valley’s far off areas. The drugs, which the government has been claiming to be selling at the cheaper rates at the hospital counter for the poor patients, are nowhere existent.
After waiting in queues for hours, the patients are denied the facility with the hospital administration informing that about the unavailability of the prescribed drug. There are also reports that despite the doctors in the institute being paid Non Practise Allowance (NPA), they continue, sans any remorse their private practises- charging hefty sums from the poor patients in their respective private clinics. Turning blind eye towards such a dreadful practise, the government has been doing virtually nothing that could have ensured better facilities to the patients who visit the SKIMS with the hope of getting a quality treatment.
Plight of attendants
The administration is charging Rs 100 from each attendant for a 15-minute visit to the hospital. Several people told Kashmir Leader that while their near and dear ones are admitted in the hospital, visiting them has become very difficult because of the irrational decision of the hospital authorities. The people said a checking squad appointed by director SKIMS Dr Showkat Zargar makes rounds of the hospital wards after every 30 minutes. “The squad carries a receipt book and whenever any person is found visiting any patient without a Rs 100 entry fee, he or she is fined Rs 200 to 300. Then after 20 minutes, the squad returns and demands more money from the attendant if he intends to stay for more time,” the people said. They said that there are no griev- ance cells inside the hospital wherein the people could register their com- plaint about what they called “fleecing by the hospital administration.”
“The SKIMS has become a ‘wasoli adda’ wherein people are taken for a ride by none other than the hospital authorities. The orders have been is- sued by the director of the institute to fleece money from the poor,” the attendants said. They said that people with various ailments visit this hospital because they are from poor background and do not have enough resources to visit private hospitals or nursing homes. “Irony is that the institute which was otherwise established for the poor people is leaving no stone unturned in fleecing the patients and the attendants,” a SKIMS employee said on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, as people are in a fix over whether SKIMS has turned into a picnic spot as the money being charged for every visit is so heavy that it even same could outnumber any private health centre in the state. SKIMS’s director Dr Zargar was not available for comment.
