SRINAGAR: Trauma patients, who are supposed to get admitted and treated in hospitals on priority basis, are made to wait for hours at Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura to get their COVID-19 tests done.
Sources at SKIMS said that the patients who are being brought to the hospital with blunt and penetrating injuries including falls, collision injury, amputation, facial trauma, concussion and acoustic trauma are unnecessarily made to wait from dawn to dusk to get their Covid-19 tests done.
They said the condition of most of the trauma cases with severe physical injuries often deteriorates and some succumb for want of attention by the trauma specialists at SKIMS.
Fifty patients who arrived at SKIMS from different part of the valley with severe physical injuries were not treated till their Covid-19 tests came negative on Monday.
The aggrieved attendants of these patients alleged that doctors treat everyone at SKIMS as untouchable until they are satisfied with the test results.
An official told ‘Kashmir Images’ that trauma patients are supposed to get admitted in the hospital without delay as there are possibilities that they may go through lifetime disability if not treated well on time.
“A patient with routine illness can wait, but a trauma patient may die or suffer lifetime disability if not treated on time,” he added.
When contacted, Medical Superintendent SKIMS Soura, Dr Farooq Jan said there is no question of delay on the part of the doctors in treating trauma patents. He, however, added that the patients with minor injuries are only asked to wait for COVID-19 test.
“I have issued guidelines that Coronavirus should not come into the way of trauma cases but patients with minor injuries cannot be exempted from testing. If we do so then everyone in the hospital has to go for quarantine. I will still look into the complaints and if these complaints are proven right, necessary actions will follow,” Dr Jan told ‘Kashmir Images’.
