Showkat Jan
Srinagar: The attendants accompanying patients to the valley’s lone territory care maternity hospital-LalDed face huge inconvenience due to insufficient space for their stay. The attendants assemble and stay in the corridors of the hospital not only creating chaos and disturbance, but also throw the littering and other garbage making it infection prone for patients.
The lone maternity hospital in Srinagar provides exclusive service in the field of Gynecology and obstetrics facility. It was recently upgraded to 500 beds hospital from its existing number of 300 beds.
An old man Mohammad Ramzan Mir from Handwara says during the rains and inclement weather conditions, they face tough time to find the shelter and during night they are forced to sleep at concrete floors.
“We can’t afford to book hotel rooms. So we sleep at concrete floors of corridor or in patient wards,” he says.
Mir demands a Sarai in hospital for the poor and needy people attending the patients.
“We request the government to build at least sarai here for those who can’t afford to book hotel rooms. Most of the people who visit here are poor and middle class,” he adds.
Pertinently, the hospital is witnessing unprecedented flow of patients from north and south Kashmir due to poor infrastructure at district maternity hospitals.
At an average, each patient requires two to three attendants and with this number, the hospital always remains overcrowded.
As many of the attendants prefer self-cooking, it has a very less space available for the purpose.
“It needs to have allotted place for eating and sleeping for attendants without getting patent care affected. Normally the overcrowded corridors with attendants hamper the professional duty of doctors and paramedical staff besides creating noise pollution,” said one of the doctors at hospital wishing not to be named.
Another attendant, Fayaz Ahmad said that they are staying in corridors at night but for the whole day irrespective of weather conditions, they are forced to stay under open sky.
“During night it becomes difficult to find space for sleep, people usually sleep in patient wards and in corridors. During the day time attendants are forced to vacate the hospital to stay outside either to bear scorching heat or drench in the rain and bear bone chilling winters ’’ said Fayaz Ahmad.
Presently, the hospital has only two waiting rooms for the attendants.
