Dearth of doctors hits patient care at Super Specialty hospital Srinagar

Srinagar, Dec 4: Acute staff shortage at Super Specialty hospital at Shireen Bagh Srinagar here has come under severe criticism with the patients, alleging it to be a reason of immense hardships.

A large queue of patients or their attendants could be seen on Tuesday at the ticket counter in the hospital premises as the acute staff shortage forced them to wait in long queues for hours.

The patients who had come from far-flung areas told said that the acute shortage of staff at ticket counter here has caused lot of inconvenience to them, saying that they are being forced to wait in long queues to get tickets or to submit test fee.

A long queue of patients or their attendants were seen standing in the line waiting for their turns at lone OPD counter while most of the patients returned back without meeting the doctor.

Nazir Ahmad, one of the attendants said that the hospital authorities have failed to ensure better facilities to the patients here. “I am waiting in the queue from past half an hour and there seems no relief to the attendants or patients as only one ticket counter is functioning where a lone employee is taking fee or providing OPD tickets to the patients,” he said.

He said authorities must increase the men in the hospital so that the patients could heave a sigh of relief.

Echoing similar views, another attendant Manzoor Ahmad said that there should be an increase in the number of OPD ticket counters for the wellbeing of patients especially to those who are visiting the hospital from far-flung areas.

Medical Superintendent Super Specialty hospital, Dr Nazir Chowdhary said that the sole OPD ticket counter was made available only to tackle the huge rush of patients and to ensure better patient care.“The OPD ticket counters can be increased but we have to ensure better patient –care and to tackle the huge rush of patients too,” he said, adding that the sole OPD ticket counter instead of more than two are there only to tackle the huge rush of patients and to ensure better patient care.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)