Crossing smhs - super specialty hospital stretch fraught with danger for ailing

SRINAGAR: A patient undergoing a neurosurgery at SMHS Hospital will need to get admitted at Super Specialty Hospital. A patient admitted for a malignancy at SMHS Hospital will need to get an

MRI done from Super Specialty Hospital. A patient reporting with a heart attack at SMHS Hospital will need to reach the Cardiac ICU at Super Specialty Hospital for admission. Patients, many

of them on stretchers and wheelchairs, are made to shuttle between SMHS Hospital and Super Specialty Hospital Srinagar through a busy road in-between due to many departments and facilities

split between the two hospitals. Years on, the authorities have failed to put in place a safe-way between these hospitals, adjacent, but divided by a high-traffic road. Super Specialty

Hospital became operational in 2016, with a partial shifting of three departments. In the years that followed, the Government Medical College Srinagar administration has shifted many

departments to the new hospital from SMHS Hospital, in order to pave the way for their growth. These departments include Gastroenterology, Neurosurgery, Cardiology, Nephrology and

Hematology. Moreover, the Cath Lab, the Dialysis Services and many investigations are being shared by the two hospitals making it unavoidable for doctors to operate from both the locations

while providing treatment to patients. In addition, due to the absence of an OPD Section in Super Specialty Hospital, the patients seek consultation from a make-shift arrangement set up at

patient Sarai in SMHS Hospital. Doctors in both the hospitals have for long been demanding a better pathway for the patients. “Super Specialty is a referral hospital. Every patient that has

to go to it has to go through SMHS Hospital. And then, there are multiple visits for availing other facilities,” a doctor told _Greater Kashmir_. A senior official said that the GMC

administration had been apprised of the difficulties and dangers of the short journey between the two hospitals. He said that the administration had approved funding of Rs 18 crore for an

aero-bridge between the two hospitals but no work had started on the project yet. Medical Superintendent SMHS Hospital, Dr Kanwajeet Singh said the aerobridge proposal was approved and the

project was set to take off soon. “Just a few days ago, we had a meeting and the Principal GMC Srinagar impressed upon the executing agency to prioritise the work,” he said.