SNS KASHMIR
Faizan Ahmad
SRINAGAR NOVEMBER, 10 :
Patients admitted in various hospitals are shivering with cold as authorities have failed to keep heating arrangements in place amid dip in temperature in the valley.Bashir Ahmad, an attendant with a patient at Super Speciality Hospital Srinagar said neither the heating system has been started nor personnel blankets are allowed to patients. “Patients are shivering with cold but nobody is concerned. We are even not allowed to bring our own blankets to make ourselves warm. The non-availability of heating arrangements is causing cold-related ailments among the patients. Our patient has caught a cold in the hospital,” he told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).An official at LD Hospital said new born babies in the hospital are also facing the threat of catching cold-related diseases.“This issue has been brought into the notice of concerned authorities many times but to no avail,” the official added.Similarly, attendants also complain about the lack of heating arrangements at SMHS Hospital Srinagar.“My mother is admitted here but there is no heating arrangement in place. Patients are shivering with cold. Nobody is concerned about patients and attendants. This is the scene of the premier hospital of Kashmir then you can imagine the condition in other hospitals,” said Mehraj ud Din, whose mother is admitted to SKIMS Soura.An official of SKIMS Soura said that heating system has been started in a few departments like pediatric department. “But majority of SKIMS is without a heating system thus bringing huge inconveniences to the patients and attendants,” the official said.When asked Medical Superintendent SKIMS Soura Dr Farooq Jan about lack of heating arrangements he refused to comment. “You should talk to PRO for the comments,” he said.PRO SKIMS could not be contacted for the comments.Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) has urged administration to start the heating system in Kashmir hospitals as the patients are suffering due to the chill.With temperatures dipping, DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan said patients are shivering with cold as the heating system of hospitals has not been started yet.“The bone-chilling cold in hospitals is making life difficult for ailing patients,” he has said.The DAK President said tertiary care and peripheral hospitals are without heating putting lives of patients at risk.“Cardiac and Stroke patients in hospitals are at increased risk of death as cold thickens blood and constricts the arteries,” he said.“Even the condition of Asthmatics and patients with Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases worsens in hospitals because of cold conditions,” he added. (KINS)