Kashmir’s tertiary hospitals lack geriatric care; elderly patients suffer

Srinagar, Jan 17: Despite the growing elderly population, Kashmir’s major tertiary care hospitals in Srinagar and district hospitals lack geriatric care units and essential facilities to meet the healthcare needs of senior citizens.
Almost all tertiary care hospitals including SMHS Srinagar – which remains busy with patients daily – lack separate geriatric care departments due to which the elderly patients suffer.
“In the absence of geriatric care units here, it is very difficult for patients like me to stand in queues for the turn. It makes the experiences of people more challenging,” said 72-year-old Mohammad Shaban, who had come from Baramulla to SMHS for treatment of comorbidities.
Many patients like him suffer daily in the district hospitals which makes their stay troublesome. Shaban said the situation is more worrisome in rural hospitals where people already grapple with a shortage of specialist doctors.
A doctor speaking on the issue said, “There is no concept of geriatric care. No elderly care centres have been established in district and sub-district hospitals. We are also failing in creating geriatric care specialists as the course is not being taught in Kashmir.”
Doctors also agree that the absence of geriatric care units forces numerous patients, particularly elderly citizens, to face challenges in hospital OPDs, which remain abuzz with patients.
A senior doctor at GMC Srinagar said running geriatric care units or departments in hospitals is “impossible” as the valley lacks geriatric specialists. “There should be qualified doctors who have specialisation in geriatric care. There is a requirement for this as 70 percent of the population is aged 60 years and it will increase in future. The elderly people need more care than an adult or a child,” he said.
The doctor said geriatric care needs a multispecialty approach. He suggested that first the departments should be established at the medical college level and then the district hospital level.
Despite high life expectancy, J&K still lags behind in elderly care as the health department has failed to implement the National Programme for Health Care of Elderly (NPHCE).
The spokesperson of the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mir Mushtaq said the department has kept OPD counters for geriatrics in district hospitals to felicitate them. “Alongside the OPDs, there are palliative care facilities for the elderly patients and separate counters as well as wards, but these are not fully developed and there are no separate departments,” he said.
In 2018, the Health Department Kashmir, in its health policy draft, had proposed to establish the Geriatric Medicine department at Government Medical College, Srinagar and Jammu.
The lack of geriatric medicine courses in the medical colleges then prompted authorities to recommend the speciality aimed at providing a breakthrough for elderly patients.
Due to the shortage of geriatric specialists in tertiary care hospitals, these failed to improve elderly care by not creating or disseminating knowledge through education and research.
Despite the Government of India’s announcement of mending infrastructure and healthcare solutions for elderly care, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura and GMC Srinagar are yet to introduce a post-graduate course in geriatric medicine.
The failure of authorities to introduce geriatric medicine courses in both institutes has compelled geriatric aspirants to move outside Kashmir.
The aspirants pursue a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in geriatric from private colleges on exorbitant charges. “I want to pursue my career in geriatric medicine but there is no such course in Kashmir not even at premiere institute SKIMS has not started it,” an aspirant said.
SKIMS authorities were asked by the health ministry to introduce post-graduate courses in geriatrics to create specialists but nothing seems to be implemented on the ground.
Teaching Institute, GMC Srinagar, one of the oldest medical colleges in North India, has also not started the course, raising eyebrows from doctors to aspirants.