‘Unhygienic toilets with broken doors, locks leave them exasperated’
By: Ahmad Shabir
Anantnag: The unhygienic washrooms at Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag have come under severe criticism with the patients as well as the attendants, stating that they mostly feel hesitant to use them.
They said that the broken doors and locks of the washrooms too are also exposing their privacy.
A visit to the healthcare facility reveals a grim picture as far as the hygiene and cleanliness is concerned.
Both the toilet blocks in the Out-Patient Department (OPD) are so stinky that most of the patients and attendants are hesitant to use them; the patients as well as the attendants told Precious Kashmir.
Each block has three toilet rooms and two washrooms but none of them is worth use.
Besides being unhygienic almost all the toilet rooms have broken locks from inside. Even the doors of some toilet rooms are half broken, thus exposing the privacy of the female patients and attendants.
Patients who spoke to Precious Kashmir in the OPD complained of severe inconvenience due to the poor hygiene and broken doors and locks of toilet and washrooms.
“It is no less than an agony to enter and use these unhygienic toilet rooms. The condition of the toilet rooms forced me to step back as soon as I opened their doors. I later went to a local Masjid outside the hospital where I used the toilet,” said an attendant, who identified himself as Adil.
Adil was accompanying his mother to the hospital, who according to him clearly refused to use the washroom as soon as she stepped inside the female block.
Another attendant, Muhammad Sultan who was accompanying his sister said that due to the broken locks of the toilet rooms, female patients and attendants suffer more.
“Being males we can go to nearby Masjids to use washrooms there but female patients face lot of inconvenience. This is shame for the administration of this hospital that they cannot fix repair and fix even the doors and locks of toilet rooms,” he said.
This reporter saw many attendants standing guard outside the toilet rooms with broken locks till the patient inside comes out.
However, some of the attendants and doctors blamed the people visiting the hospital for the condition of toilet blocks.
“These toilet blocks were repaired only few months ago. But the people visiting the facility don’t consider it their property. They rather consider it as a government property. No doubt the administration of the GMC should also keep check on the things but it is finally we people we render these toilet and washrooms of this facility unfit for use,” said a Para-medic.
Medical Superintendent of GMC, Dr Mohammad Iqbal said that both these toilet blocks in the OPD were repaired last year by Roads and Building department.
“I will get the minor repairs like fixing the locks of toilets and washrooms done only tomorrow,” MS said.
