SKIMS under scanner, LG asks Director to improve functioning

‘Ensure best healthcare facilities, rationalize resources’
Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 4: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has asked the Director Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences to create patient friendly atmosphere and improve the functioning of the premiere health institute in the Valley.
“Today met Prof A. G. Ahangar, Director SKIMS and enquired about the measures undertaken to ensure best healthcare facilities to the patients at SKIMS,” LG Sinha tweeted.
“Advised him to create a patient friendly atmosphere and called for bringing more improvement in the functioning of SKIMS by rationalizing the resources and ensuring best healthcare facilities to every visiting patient,” he said in another tweet.
It’s in place to mention here a Srinagar man had recently written a letter to LG Sinha alleging that the SKIMS administration has failed in saving the lives of dozens of Covid-19 patients as it could not provide them quality health care.
He has mentioned in the letter that despite media highlighting the issue the government didn’t respond. “It appears that the LG Sinha’s tweet is in response to the letter he had received and the wide media coverage that the epistle had got,” said an observer.
He said that since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic the SKIMS has been in news for many wrong reasons. “Despite crores being spent in the name of Covid, patients had to spend lot of money on their treatment at SKIMS with most of medicines being unavailable at the SKIMS despite a drug counter,” the observer claimed.
He said that during the past few months news stories about patients suffering at SKIMS have been appearing every now and then. “But the SKIMS administration has not paid much attention towards these reports and had functioned in its own way.”
The observer said, “LG Sinha has sounded an alarm and has in a way conveyed to director SKIMS that patients cannot be left to fend on their own. The administration of the health institution should wake up and respond to the situation. It cannot just keep on projecting a goody, goody picture and telling everyone that all is well.”
He said, “It appears that the government has taken a strong note of the alleged mismanagement at SKIMS and in coming days action could follow. The Director SKIMS needs to take the advice of LG Sinha seriously. If he ignores it he may end up in a soup.”