At SDH Uri, patients suffer in absence of healthcare facilities

Srinagar, Feb 27: The healthcare facilities especially maternity services at Sub-District Hospital (SDH) Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla is facing shortage of doctors and other health facilities.
Residents of Uri said the only hospital in the area has been neglected over the years and they have no option but to travel to Baramulla and Srinagar hospitals for basic healthcare.
Zaffar Ahmad, a resident of Uri said the SDH Uri has no sanctioned posts of several doctors and lacks the posts of ENT, Sonologist, Ophthalmologist and Radiologist.
“Even if the hospital has a high-quality USG machine but due to lack of Sonologist, the facility is not available here. SDH Uri authorities have appointed a medical officer who does it twice a week. Same medical officer has also been assigned the same duty for other health centres,” he said.
The residents face hardships while undergoing even minor surgery in SDH Uri. Pregnant women suffer badly during pregnancy period due to lack of Blood Bank and Sonologist.
“If a patient needs blood there is no option other than shifting the patient to Baramulla,” thr resident said.
“Even during minor complications, and due to non-availability of resources, hospital authorities are forced to refer patients to Baramulla district Hospital for treatment. The non-availability of facilities has made life of people tough and troublesome,” he said.
Uri has been the worst victim of cross-border shelling and land mines. Located few kilometres away from the LoC, the Uri hospital has been attending the cases of cross-border shelling and landmine victims.
As per residents the tehsil Uri and Boniyar Sub-divisions of Uri caters 100 plus villages and the population of twin tehsils consists of more than 2,80,000 lakh people.
Naveed Ahmad, a resident said the hospital also lacks trauma care as most of the critical cases are shifted to Baramulla. Both tehsils lack some of basic requirements like CT-Scan and blood bank facilities.
“Majority of the population lives in tough terrains as all of it is a hilly area. And at least 40 villages of the Uri and Boniyar tehsil are located on LoC. The topography of these two tehsils is such that it is naturally hard to survive,” he said.
As per locals despite the introduction of Smridhi Seema Yojana, a component of the Border Area Development Plan (BADP), the health infrastructure is still in shambles.
Naveed said the posts of Community Health Officer and Health Educator are vacant and haven’t been filled till date. The hospital also faces shortage of paramedic staff.
He also stated that due to lack of government accommodation for doctors in Uri, they prefer to get transferred to Srinagar hospitals or nearby to their homes.
Spokesperson Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mir Mushtaq said there are some posts of medical officers vacant in the hospital which has been taken up with the concerned authorities.
“Out of five specialist posts, four are in place and one is not in place. There is no sanctioned post of radiologist. We are trying to train doctors in ultrasonography training. In future we will train the doctors of the area so that patients do not face any problem,” he said.
However, Chief Medical Officer, Baramulla, Dr Bashir Ahmad Malik said he is not aware of the issue but assured that he will look into the matter.