Srinagar, April 2: Mayor Srinagar Municipal Corporation Junaid Azim Mattu said the “collective report card of 16 successive governments was Kashmir has 95 ventilators for 80 lakh people”.
“We have 95 ventilators for 80 lakh people!! That’s the COLLECTIVE report card of 16 successive J&K state govts! Let us INTROSPECT!” he tweeted.
“THEY ask about the preparedness of the healthcare sector in Kashmir? CD Hospital established in 1880! SMHS 1948! Lala Dad 1959! SKIMS 1977! We have 95 ventilators for 80 lakh people!! JLNM – (1889 Old Mission Hospital?) SKIMS Medical College – Dr. Guru and co initiated without pretty much any institutional assistance! Govt later took over and upgraded – yes. Bones and Joints – Old ‘Fever Hospital’ Perhaps 1940s? B&J has TWO ventilators. A surgical hospital!,” he said.
Meanwhile a senior doctor at Shar-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura Srinagar, said, “God’s forbid, if the virus spreads in Kashmir, our health system is in poor state. We are not in a position to deal with any eventuality and there will be a crisis situation,”
The doctor said there are only few ventilators available in isolation wards where patients with symptoms of coronavirus are kept. “The ventilators are already occupied by patients in cardiology and wards of other departments. Patients having coronavirus symptoms can’t be shifted to ICU as they have to be isolated. Our hospitals are most poorly equipped across India,” the doctor said.
Doctors have also have raised concerns about the lack of proper and adequate personnel protection gears and safety equipment like N95 masks, PVC coated gowns and ventilators in hospitals.
