Suhail Dar
Anantnag’s District hospital which was upgraded to a Medical College in 2019 is the premier hospital for south Kashmir districts and also witnesses patient intake from the district of Banihal.
According to the official figures, the hospital has an intake of 800 patients on an average per day. The patients include those from Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam, sometimes Banihal too. Among these hundreds of patients who visit the doctors at GMC Anantnag was Zafar’s sister, who had been recommended an MRI scan. The hospital, however, lacks basic facilities including the Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) facility, forcing the patients either go to Srinagar hospitals or private diagnostic centres.
Zafar, pursuing post graduation from Islamic University of Science and Technology was forced to take her sister to a private clinic and paying a hefty amount of money. “I fail to understand the reason for the absence of an MRI machine at the hospital. Is our Jammu Kashmir so poor that they cannot pay money for MRI and a private clinic can?” he asked.
Absence of MRI and other scans makes people suffer to a huge extent.
The Kashmriyat spoke to the principal of GMC who said that the MRI machine would soon be availed at GMC. “By maximum of December 2022, the hospital will have MRI facility,” he said.
As per details available with The Kashmiriyat, the hospital sans basic blood tests like blood culture, Coagulogram, PSA, CPUS culture and CpK.
Other tests including PET Scan, Bronchoscopy, Bone Scans, ERCP, MRCP are also not carried out at the hospital as of now.