Defunct USG machine, medicine shortage irks patients at CHC Sumbal

Bandipora, Dec 1: The residents of Sumbal subdivision of north Kashmir's Bandipora district are fuming over dysfunctional USG and X-ray machines saying that the unavailability of the important procedure has affected patient care.

Locals told Greater Kashmir that the USG machine at the hospital was lying nonfunctional for nearly twenty days, which was mostly affecting expecting mothers and those patients who are being advised the tests.

"The winter is cruel, patients fall sick in this season more. The nonfunctional USG machine is an ordeal for expecting mothers," Sumbal civil society member Nazir Ahmad, told Greater Kashmir.

The locals said the CHC was catering to a large population with dozens of villages in Sumbal seeking medical care from the facility. Besides nonfunctional USG, the patients said the X-ray plant has been out of the stock of films for a long time now, and patients have to rely on digital copies of the X-ray sent to their phones or photographs of the films displayed on the monitors of the machine.

"It was an issue as the majority of the patients and elderly don't have smartphones or are not technologically sound to understand the procedure," one more local said. "This procedure in no sense seems a proper way to diagnose a patient," Ahamd said.

Locals said the hospital also lacked important medicines or emergency drugs. Locals said the government and those concerned must look into these issues before it snows as shifting patients to Srinagar in absence of these facilities will be cumbersome.

BMO Hajin Idrees Ahmad told Greater Kashmir the problem with the USG machine was that it is "not working."

He said they have placed the order for a new machine which "will be made functional" in a day. Regarding X-ray films, he said they were "out of stock" and for now Director SKIMS had provided them some supply from JVC "till regular supplies reach us from SKIMS."