J&K’s healthcare sector continued to remain hobbled with incomplete projects, equipment shortage

Srinagar, Dec 3: The year 2024 would be seen as another year in which languishing projects in the healthcare sector in Kashmir continued to remain incomplete while there was also shortage of medical equipment and heavy dues of healthcare insurance bills,Infrastructure: Progress and Challenges.The most awaited AIIMS Kashmir made progress but seemed far away from the point where it would be ready to be called a hospital. The hollow shells of buildings, claimed to be nearing completion by the authorities, have all eyes set on them for the coming year. The authorities have promised that early 2025 will be the turning point in the life cycle of this project that has the potential to augment the tertiary care health sector.Like AIIMS Kashmir, many new blocks and vital extensions of hospitals continue to be languishing. The SKIMS Medical College Hospital infrastructure remains utterly poor and the progress on its fresh buildings seems nowhere around completion. This hospital is the prime healthcare stop not just for Srinagar but for entire Kashmir. The apathy towards it has continued for years.There are innumerable instances like these: Bone and Joint Hospital, Anantnag Maternity Hospital, Kangan Maternity Hospital, the multiple Trauma Hospitals, and the list is exhaustive.Not just the buildings, Kashmir has continued to lag behind in diagnostics and interventional equipment and infrastructure. The GMC Srinagar, which has the highest network of hospitals under it has one MRI facility to bank on. This MRI machine caters to patients at SMHS Hospital, Super Specialty Hospital, Bone and Joint Hospital, Lal Ded Hospital, Children Hospital, Chest Diseases Hospital and those referred from hospitals across Kashmir. The Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) of GMC Srinagar has a separate MRI at its Rainawari facility, which is sometimes utilised for other patients as well.