Baramulla: Hundreds of the patients and attendants visiting GMC Baramulla are aghast over the unhygienic environment in and around Associate Hospital of Government Medical College (GMC) Baramulla.
“At the entrance of Accident and Emergency of the hospital overfilled garbage bins, broken beds, wheelchairs, rusted piles of old stock will greet you with leaking AC’s mounting on the walls. There are hardly any wheelchairs or trolleys in working condition to ferry the sick patients,” said one Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat, who struggled to get a wheelchair for his injured brother.
The pathetic condition of the hospital doesn’t end here. Inside the casualty, outdoor patient department (OPD) and indoor patient departments ((IPD) the washrooms cum toilets are either locked for repairs or in an utterly unhygienic condition. The bathrooms in the hospital are blocked and overflowing with dirt. The pipes are leaking, the faucets don’t work and toilets emanate unbearable foul smell, allege patients as well as the attendants.
Ironically, there is no washroom or toilet attached to Orthopedic Ward wherein patients admitted after undergoing surgeries struggle to attend nature’s call as they have to go to medical or post operative gynecology wards.
While ruing the pathetic condition of hospital viz-a-viz hygiene and sanitation, a nurse wishing anonymity said that they are not allowed to use some toilets made for the staff as these are kept under lock and key.
“The toilets in all floors of the hospital lack running water, have no latches on doors, stink and the floors are always wet and slippery thus causing huge problems to the people, especially women folk,” she lamented.
Two lifts which were installed in the new hospital complex are defunct forcing patients to depend on their relatives, friends and security guards to carry them up and down stairs, alleged some attendents.
Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Dr. Javid Lone admitted that the hospital is facing the problems owing to lack of sanitation and dysfunctional toilets.
“The hospital administration is working on it and good toilet facility would be provided to the patients as work is going on. Lift is frequently defunct due to substandard installation,” he added.
