Sameer Showkin Lone
Srinagar, Sep 16: Defunct X-ray machine at District Tuberculosis Center (DTC) Anantnag is giving tough time to patients as they are forced either to move to private clinics or travel to Government Medical College Anantnag to get the investigation done.
The DTC Anantnag lacks everything that a basic TB facility does. In the year 2017-18, the facility’s own full-fledged building was demolished only to pave the way for construction of a multi-storey parking lot at the site.
The authorities at that time decided to shift the DTC to the old hospital building. However, months later the district tuberculosis authorities had to vacate the old hospital building and shift to some other place.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any building for the hospital. Our own building (DTC Anantnag) was turned into a parking facility for vehicles. We are presently operating from three rooms in Brakpora, outskirts of Anantnag town. We have an X-ray machine but that is non-functional,” said DTO Anantnag Dr Faheem Alam.
Alam said they have got the X-ray machine from the Central TB Division, but it awaits installation.
“Our infrastructure was not ready. Now we have taken another room from the local Primary Health Center which needed some necessary repairs and wiring so that the X-ray machine can be installed. The room is ready now. We are waiting for a team of technicians from Pune to install the machine. We have written to them several times but they haven’t come yet. We expect them to come by the end of this month,” he told Rising Kashmir.
Asked how you manage, since X-ray is a basic thing to diagnose TB patients, Dr Alam said they have signed an agreement with Government Medical College Anantnag, to get the patients tested.
But for the patients GMC Anantnag is some 5-6 kilometers away from the present District Tuberculosis center. “We have to travel 10-12 kilometers approximately to and fro to get the X-ray done,” complained a TB patient Imtiyaz Ahmad (name changed).
State Tuberculosis Officer (STO) Kashmir, Dr Rubeena Shaheen said, “We should have the X-ray facility… but we have not yet. Actually, I wasn’t aware of it. I joined last year only. The X-ray machine has been provided to the DTC concerned and everything is being streamlined now,” she told Rising Kashmir.
Dr Shaheen added that patients do face problems travelling and getting the x-rays done. “But we reimburse them the cost they spend on travelling for the X-ray. There are incentives in these programs and the patients are reimbursed accordingly,” she said.
