NGOs of Kashmir need paradigm shift in helping patients

Sarosh Ahmed Khan, MBBS; MD; FACP

The budget of a top hospital like SMHS runs in crores of rupees. They have all facilities available at just the signature of a document. However the priorities can be misplaced. As an example there were no wheelchairs in the Emergency Department of this hospital for years. The dilapidated metallic stretchers were very painful to the patients. Then some charitable organisation donated wheelchairs to the hospital. Even in a hospital like the Bone and Joint Hospital in Barzulla, Srinagar which deals with fractures and dislocations the wheelchairs and stretchers are in poor condition. You have to assemble parts of 2 or 3 to make one in proper condition for use!

A non-governmental organisation (NGO) like Help Poor Voluntary Trust (HPVT) is doing great job in helping patients. But it has to change its focus from well helping well established government hospitals to building its own infrastructure. Donating peanuts to government hospitals doesn’t serve any purpose. In fact it encourages the callous attitude of administrators and encourages corruption.

The plan by the charitable organisations dealing with healthcare should be to start at the primary level and then move ahead. It would be a great achievement if HPVT can build Primary Health Care Centers in every district of Jammu and Kashmir. Here, a general practitioner can see patients. Also facilities like a laboratory conducting basic investigations and a pharmacy providing drugs at subsidised rates can be initiated.

In the next stage a Hospital can be started in Srinagar and later in the next phase, if the project is successful, plan to setup a tertiary care hospital on the pattern of one made by Vaishnodevi Trust in Katra, Jammu can be achieved.

There are plenty of donors within and outside the country who will support this idea.

Let us utilise the money donated by people in a well organised manner and aim to change the healthcare in the non-governmental areas.

That would be an achievement.

Author Information: Dr. Sarosh A. Khan is Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine and Director Naseem Medical Center, Baghe-Mehtab, Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Pin: 190019. He is the Editor in Chief of Physicians Academy. Affiliations: Governing Council Member of American College of Physicians (India Chapter) from 2014-2017. Email: drsarosh@gmail.com

To Get This Article in PDF CLICK HERE