Pulwama: The district hospital Pulwama has the potential to become a tertiary unit of South Kashmir but maladministration, cronyism, lobbyism and indiscipline of employees are leading to its downfall.
With the lack of intervention at the Directorate level for smooth functioning of the hospital, the chaotic situation is exacerbating every day.
The hospital is manned by nearly 60 doctors including Medical Officers, Consultants, specialists and trained paramedical staff yet complaints galore about the chaos and mismanagement.
Residents said that they have reiterated to the Director of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, to intervene and take action for the smooth functioning of the hospital.
“The director has made false promises but took no action. He does not seem interested in the smooth functioning of the hospital,” Adil Ahmad, a local resident told Kashmir Review.
Locals said that they have urged the director to appoint a new Medical Superintendent and transfer employees who have prolonged stays but to no avail.
The daily chaos and thrashing of paramedical staff by a few doctors has earned the sobriquet of ‘Akhada’ for the hospital.
In the last two months, a senior doctor has thrashed two paramedical staff for no reasons
“One HDF worker has been thrashed twice in the last few weeks, while an Operation Theatre Technician was thrashed on December 27, which led to the intervention of the police,” several employees of the hospital said.
The issue aggravated to the level that the operation theatre was closed for half a day on December 28 as part of the protest and the theatre staff agreed to resume work after intervention by doctors and appeals by patients.
The employees wrote to the Director to transfer the doctor or relieve them all.
Employees said that senior employees whose posting is stretched from years don’t work and are chronic for creating mismanagement.
“These employees have become major hurdles for smooth running of hospitals and its main units,” employees said.
Doctors said that the lack of administration has taken a toll on patient care.
“The incidents of thrashing is creating indiscipline among the staff, which directly hits patient care. There is no accountability of such incidents and staff by the hospital head. Lack of administration has made it free for all,” doctors said.
Several new doctors posted to the hospital got themselves transferred after a few months as they were annoyed by the indiscipline of senior employees.
The government spent crores of rupees to build the new IPD building and modern Operation Theatre and other important units. However, lack of proper look after and administration have made the whole spending useless.
Attendants said that Private security men who man the entry points of the hospital never wear uniforms and they act like hooligans with the patients and attendants.
“The private Security men should be in uniform to distinguish them from other staff,” locals said.
Residents, employees said that if the Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Medical Education does not intervene, the hospital’s downfall is imminent.
“At Directorate, the situation is not improving in the hospital. We urge higher authorities to intervene,” residents said.
“The healthcare indicators suggest we are the best in the healthcare delivery. We have taken cognizance of the incidents of indiscipline and waiting for the complainant to register the case,” Chief Medical Officer Pulwama, Dr Haseena Mir told Kashmir Review.
Director Health Services Kashmir Dr Mushtaq Rather was not available for the comments.
