COVID19: CD hospital struggles with uncooperative patients, wants govt to deploy security

Srinagar, Mar 26: In wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Srinagar chest diseases hospital is facing serious challenges due to lack of security and uncooperative patients.
The hospital is at the forefront of treating patients with respiratory tract infections, thus making it an obvious place to receive suspected coronavirus cases, of which Kashmir so far has seen 10 positive ones and one death.
On Thursday, a COVID-19 positive patient admitted at the hospital passed away, even as several others admitted with similar history and symptoms are being treated there.
A day before, a girl from Srinagar who had recently come back from Hungary, fled the hospital and later reported on her own at SKIMS Soura.
The patients isolated in the hospital, a senior doctor said, were hardly cooperating with the management.
“They are told to do one thing and they do the other. It is as if they don’t understand the gravity of the situation,” the doctor said.
He added that the hospital would require an actual police presence to ensure that the patients do whatever and stay wherever they are told to.
Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, Head of Department Chest Medicine at the hospital made a fervent appeal to the authorities to provide more security at the hospital so that it can ensure patients are properly isolated.

“Request for administration…no security in the hospital….patients not cooperating…they roam about on the hospital defeating the motive of isolation…need hospital security,” Dr Shah tweeted on Thursday.