Covid-19 disrupts routine health services in Kashmir

Routine medical services have been severely disrupted in Kashmir valley since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March this year as authorities were compelled to curtail other services.

Routine care for pregnant women, elderly patients, infants and other diseases got hugely disturbed due to the pandemic. “Since March, patients are unable to access medical services, termed routine but life-saving in nature as focus is on Covid-19 pandemic,” a senior medico at Srinagar’s tertiary-care SKIMS hospital told DH.

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He said hundreds of cancer, tuberculosis, heart diseases and other patients are finding it difficult to visit hospitals due to the situation as while focus remained on emergencies and Covid-19 only.

“While the government claims that routine OPDs and admissions have been started, the fact remains that there are very few spaces and very little manpower available,” the doctor said.

Elaborating further, he said it is difficult to run the Covid-19 and non-coronavirus services from the same resources.

At Srinagar’s largest general specialty SMHS Hospital, six wards were converted into Covid-19 wards. The manpower – doctors, nurses and paramedics of these wards now work for Covid-19 patients only and these wards were meant to admit patients suffering from illnesses like kidney diseases, diabetes, cancers, gastrointestinal diseases, hypertension among others.

Patients suffering from these life-threatening diseases and disorders, over the past six months, have found it hard to get a doctor to see them, unless it is “an absolute emergency”.

After the outbreak of Covid-19, even the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that healthcare providers advise people against visiting hospitals except for emergencies to avoid contracting the coronavirus.

The recommendation led to a drastic reduction in the number of people visiting hospitals and might have instilled a sense of fear among patients. Even regular immunisation of children has been disrupted due to contraction fears, which experts believe may lead to other outbreaks.

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Not only in Srinagar, but across peripheral healthcare set-up – the district and sub-district hospitals, patient services have been badly affected, a health official said.

“We have thousands of Covid-19 patients admitted across the hospitals in Kashmir, but have the same manpower as we had before. it is the common patient who is paying the price for it,” he said.

Acknowledging the hardships faced by non-Covid-19 patients, Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo said that the government was working on a plan to cater to all kinds of patients with available resources.

“It is not possible to create resources, especially that of manpower overnight,” he said and added new recruitment of doctors and paramedics is being made on a fast-track basis.