Valley faces healthcare crisis

When The Indian Express visited the hospital Tuesday, the employees were locking the main gates. “It has been closed since the day water entered into the hospital,” an employee said. “We are locking the gates to prevent any theft of hospital equipment”.

Medical Superintendent Dr Munir Masoodi said that the hospital is “dead” and “nothing is left” there. “I saw children dying slowly as the water started submerging the hospital basement,” he said. “All gensets and oxygen units were placed there and when they stopped working, oxygen supply stopped. We couldn’t do anything.”

With the children’s hospital non-functional, thousands of parents have to wander the city looking for a child specialist. “My 10-year-old son has not been able to eat anything since last night,” Sabiqa Bano from South Kashmir’s Anantnag said. “I went to G P Pant hospital and it is closed. Some locals told me to take him to SKIMS.”

The two other major hospitals — Lal Ded and SKIMS — are still submerged but the government has not even started the dewatering process. However, a basic health clinic for the children has been set up at the Kashmir Nursing Home and a small maternity hospital has been started at Sanat Nagar.

On Tuesday, as SKIMS faced a shortage of doctors, it asked doctors of SKIMS Medical College Hospital to report urgently.