Machines worth crores of rupees bought two years ago, not yet been installed in GMC Anantnag, Patients suffer

GMC Anantnag sans MRI facility, radiotherapy facility forcing patients to visit Srinagar or private diagnostic centers.

Sameer Ahmad

Anantnag: The patient care services have been hit in south Kashmir area of Anantnag District as the Government Medical College Anantnag sans two major facilities including the MRI machine and radiotherapy facility pushing hundreds of patients of south kashmir to the wall.

According to official sources a machine ERCP worth crores of rupees bought by authorities in GMC Anantnag two years ago have not been yet installed in GMC Anantnag forcing patients to travel to Srinagar for tests.

Sources said that the GMC Anantnag also lacks Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) and radiotherapy facilities forcing the patients either go to Srinagar hospitals or private diagnostic centers.

Poor attendants are struggling hard to take their patients on a daily basis to SKIMS Soura or SMHS for radiotherapy,sources said.

The Medical College being made functional had raised the hopes of south kashmir about the improvement in healthcare in the Anantnag district.However nearly 4 years after the medical college started functioning in Anantnag, still the GMC has no MRI and radiotherapy facility ,said patients.

“There is no MRI facility in the medical college here, which forces doctors to refer patients for major tests. Although doctors refer patients to Srinagar hospitals for tests, Most of them avoid travel to Srinagar and avoid the hassle of getting stuck in traffic. They go to private diagnostic centers for tests, “said Arif Rasheed.

Added that this is very unfortunate that the GMC authorities are in deep slumber as the machine bought two years back are yet to be installed in GMC Anantnag,he said.

However, talking to Arising state GMC Principal Syed Tariq Qureshi said that the ERCP machine is functional in GMC Anantnag. Added that we have sent reminder to the higher authorities regarding the MRI machine and assured that by the end of January next year, the MRI machine will be functional in GMC Anantnag.