Dilapidated roads hamper vehicular movement to Srinagar’s 6 major hospitals

Srinagar, Oct 27: Six major hospitals in Srinagar are connected by dilapidated roads that make commuting of patients and staff difficult and pose risks with delays for critical cases.

No reprieve is in sight despite authorities being apprised of the issue of unsuitable access to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Medical College Hospital Bemina, Children Hospital Bemina, SMHS Hospital Srinagar, Super Specialty Hospital Srinagar, Government Dental College, and SKIMS Soura.

In May this year, there was a public outrage when a patient, who needed immediate treatment and lived at a distance of just 15 minutes from SMHS Hospital, could not reach the hospital even after 2 hours due to a traffic jam.

He lost his life and the incident highlighted how critical hours are lost by patients seeking treatment at SMHS Hospital and Super Specialty Hospital Srinagar.

The hospital is accessible through a major road in Srinagar, but the bottleneck posed by the narrow road at Karan Nagar onwards, the dug-up road, the parked vehicles and the huge traffic results in slowing commutes and often jams during peak traffic hours.

It is important to note that the road is the main passage to SMHS Hospital, Super Specialty Hospital, Government Dental College, and SKIMS Soura.

Many times, patients coming from far-off districts have taken more time to reach these hospitals from Jehangir Chowk onwards than the time of their entire journey from home districts.

Even the ambulances carrying patients get stuck in traffic as there is very little scope for clearing the way for their passage.

For staff of the hospital, the daily commute is a lingering issue that has not been addressed.

A critical care specialist working at Super Specialty Hospital Srinagar said that if he tries to rush to the hospital for a critical or emergency case, he often has bleak hopes of reaching on time.

“Green Corridors for ambulances are a far cry, we do not even have the basic facility for easy passage of patients and staff on crucial hospital roads,” he said.

SKIMS Medical College Hospital Bemina and Children Hospital Bemina are located on the National Highway. The road is wide and smooth, with fast and seamless traffic flow. However, for patients commuting from northern parts of Kashmir to these hospitals, the hospital is at least a few more kilometres away than it is located. The highway does not allow a turn to these hospitals except at a point at least 2 km ahead of the hospital. The distance of the U-turn adds up as more time to reach which could be detrimental for patients rushing for emergencies.

Pertinently, SKIMS MC Hospital is the catchment tertiary care hospital for the entire north Kashmir, while Children Hospital is the only tertiary care hospital for paediatrics in the entire Kashmir.

Many doctors that Greater Kashmir spoke to said that hospitals require easy access roads to ensure timely emergency response for patients for who even minutes count, as quick routes minimise delays and can save lives in critical situations.

They said that accessible roads were more important for catering to large-scale emergencies as well. Moreover, critical healthcare staff benefits from a reduction in time to commute and that would help in the overall improvement of healthcare delivery.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and CEO of the Smart City project, Owais Ahmad said his department was aware of the issue of traffic congestion on the road leading to SMHS Hospital and other hospitals on the route and steps were already underway to address it.

He said a rotary system was being put in place, in consultation with the Traffic Department, which was expected to ease the traffic a great deal.

“In addition, the road has been equipped with a parking lane, which has left two traffic lanes on each side clear of parked vehicles. We are further working on decongesting the road further with steps being taken as per traffic rules,” Ahmad said.

He said SMHS Hospital would also have a parking lot in future to reduce the number of parked vehicles around the hospital.

Regarding the issue of the U-turn on SKIMS MC Hospital road, Ahmad said the road was under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and he would not be able to comment on that.