Pulwama: With the temperature dipping below freezing point, the patients at Primary Health Centre (PHC) Rahmoo, in south Kashmir’s Pulwama, are facing a tough time as the hospital administration has failed in putting in place the necessary heating arrangement inside the hospital.
As per the patients, they suffer due to intense cold inside the health care facility as the administration has not paid any heed to their woes in the total absence of heating arrangement.
“Not only patients, but even doctors posted in the hospital also face the same problem,” one of the attendants waiting outside the hospital told Free Press Kashmir.
The facility, responsible for around 30 villages of the district, does not even have an ambulance due to which the patients have to come on their own and some have to suffer when an emergency occurs.
“The vehicle developed some machinery snag in 2018 and since then the center runs without the ambulance,” he said.
On Monday, a protest demonstration was held outside the health care facility against the lack of a heating system in the hospital.
Locals said that the newly posted doctors- through an NGO- are dedicated to their work and are better than the staff the facility had earlier.
“We need more such doctors. including female staff in the centre so that the area does not face any inconvenience during the emergences,” said one of the protesting patients who along with many others protested against the hospital administration.
The protesting members sought immediate redressal of the problems.
Several other patients who had come for a consultation said that the doctors often examine their patients on the premises of the hospital as rooms inside are colder than the outside environment.
A patient from Pulwama told Free Press Kashmir that he along with his female patient had visited the hospital for vaccination but the doctor who inoculated the patient was shivering due to the biting cold inside the ward.
He added that the administration should rearrange the staff at the hospital immediately and provide them with better facilities.
Seeking female doctors in the facility, a female patient said that she felt uncomfortable when a male doctor examined her.
Meanwhile, Dr Adil, the concerned Block Medical Officer (BMO), posted in Pulwama’s Rajpora, admitted that the patients as well as the newly posted staff face problems and assured an immediate redressal.
“There is a proper arrangement in the rooms of our personal staff but the doctors who were posted recently do not have the same,” he said, adding, “We are redressing the issue soon”.
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