SRINAGAR, AUGUST 30: Government on Friday said that nearly 5000 major surgeries have been performed in hospitals in Srinagar from August 5 till date.

Besides the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences or SKIMS at Soura and the SKIMS Medical College & Hospital at Bemina, the surgeries have been performed in all associated hospitals of the Government Medical College or GMC Srinagar.

In the GMC Srinagar associated hospitals, the number of surgerical procedures include over 3000 — including around 700 in the main trauma Shri Maharaja Hari Singh or SMHS hospital, over 800 in the main orthopedic Bone & Joints or B&J hospital and around 400 in the Super Speciality hospital.

In the Lal Ded or LD hospital which is Kashmir’s main maternity hospital, around 1200 surgeries have been performed during this period.

Besides surgeries, the general healthcare services provided to patients in these hospitals during this period has been business as usual with around 95 thousand patients seen in their OPDs and over 10 thousands patients admitted for treatment in their IPDs.

Routine laboratory investigations and radiological procedures like MRI and CT Scan performed in these hospitals during the period add up to over one lac. These include among others around 5500 X-Rays, over 6000 USGs, around 2000 ECGs, around 2000 CT Scans, 220 MRIs and some 750 super-speciality procedures.

In addition to these over 3000 in the GMC associated hospitals, over 1500 major surgeries have been performed in SKIMS Soura and SKIMS MCH Bemina. These include around 850 surgeries in the former and 750 surgeries in the latter.

General healthcare services like patients seen in outpatient departments and those admitted to inpatient departments of these hospitals include totals of over 60,000 OPDs and over 5000 IPDs. These include over 35,000 OPDs and around 3700 IPDs in SKIMS and over 26,000 OPDs and around 1500 IPDS in SKIMS MCH.

These figures exclude the number of patients seen in emergencies of these hospitals — which is over 28 thousand patients.

Different medical investigations of patients conducted in SKIMS MCH alone add up to around 70 thousand.

Primary healthcare across Kashmir has also been busy as usual with things picking up speed after Eid. In Srinagar alone some 30 thousand patients were seen in OPDs and around 1100 admitted in IPDs of different centres. 10 Major surgeries and some 800 different kinds of medical tests were also performed therein.

These figures are a clear indication that healthcare services in Kashmir have been delivering as usual. While the period has seen about 20 percent decrease in services it is not unusual in times of major festivals or events like it was in this month with Eid and the Independence celebrations both falling in it.

In regard to the status of stocks of medicines in hospitals in Kashmir it should be noted that supplies are made in two equal halves for two six-month periods per annum. The first half is still sufficient to last until the end of September. The second half of the order that will last until March 2020 will be received and distributed as usual before October.

Additional requirements if any are being provided immediately. In Srinagar for instance the administration has provided funds to several hospitals for procuring additional medicines. The latter is to cover requirements that patients usually get from retail markets.

It should also be noted that staff attendance in all these healthcare institutions being strictly monitored has been around 95 percent throughout this period.

News reports suggesting shortage of medicines or healthcare crisis in Kashmir are therefore clearly baseless.