In a first, the week-long mega health camp organized by Rotary Club concluded on May 18 successfully and 2500 surgeries were conducted across three districts of Baramula, Kupwara and Ganderbal. The initiative has been appreciated by one and all. The camp was inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Sopore Sub District Hospital on May 13. The camp was aimed to complete the backlog of elective surgeries accrued during the Covid lockdown. It may be recalled here that during pandemic, these surgeries were deferred to reduce the pressure on health infrastructure and medical staff who were completely focused on dealing with the infection. Though 2500 surgeries were concluded on last day of the camp, officials informed that the surgeons will continue their job to tend to all the registered patients till June 2. It is worth mentioning here that all these surgeries were done free of cost under AB-PMJAY scheme (Golden Card) and no out of pocket expenditure was incurred by the beneficiaries.
The camp was attended by 43 renowned international surgeons and volunteers from Rotary Club who were supported by an additional human resource of around 450 persons in the form of surgeons, anaesthetics, paramedics and support staff deputed by Directorate of Health Services Kashmir and GMC Baramula. The initiative has been appreciated by one and all and people are hoping that such camps would be organized frequently here.
Like other parts of the country, Kashmir too suffered a lot during peak Covid period and most of the patients who needed to get surgeries done couldn’t get the needful. It was an emergency situation as entire health infrastructure and the staff has too much workload and the doctors and paramedics were under tremendous pressure. As the infection was spreading at an alarming pace, even visiting the health facilities was full of risks. In this backdrop, the administration had ordered to put on hold these surgeries so that the infrastructure and the staff could be fully able to fight the infections due to deadly coronavirus.
It is appreciable that Rotary Club, in collaboration with Union Territory administration, took this initiative. It has come as a great relief to the patients who were to be operated upon and also to their families. The surgeries were efficiently done with no complicacy reported from anywhere and to the relief of the patients and their families, the surgeries were done under AB-PMJAY scheme and thus they had to pay nothing for the same. While appreciating the initiative, the people are hoping that the process continues and the patients from rest of the districts too get a chance to avail such facility.
