GMC Jammu, associated hospitals have no Critical Care Ambulance

‘Facility available at SKIMS Soura in Kashmir’

Sanjeev K Sharma

JAMMU, Sept 2: It sounds bizarre but is a bitter truth that the elite medical institute in J&K, Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu, has no facility of Critical Care Ambulance and those in need for such a service have to manage it privately on their own to shift the patient from this medical institute to outside for better treatment, or to their homes after the doctors declare that the patient does not respond to the medical treatment and may breathe only for a few more hours.

An insider informed that Critical Care Ambulance is not available at GMC Jammu and its associated hospitals.

He claimed that need of Critical Care Ambulance arises only when a patient is to be referred to some other medical institution for better treatment and the doctors at GMC Jammu do not refer patients to other hospitals.

"Those who visit other hospitals after getting initial treatment here do it unofficially on their own after taking 'Left Against Medical Advice (LAMA)', an official hospital discharge category used when a patient chooses to leave before the treating doctor recommends it," the insider maintained adding that such people get the Critical Care Ambulance by dialing 108 services or from some private service provider.

More sources informed that as GMC Jammu does not bring patients from home, so they don't feel that the medical institute should have such a facility.

When contacted GMC Jammu Principal, Dr. Ashutosh Gupta informed that dial 108 serves the purpose of Critical Care Ambulances for them.

"The dial 108 service has been centralized and the ambulance reaches on call, then why should we have it," he maintained adding: "As per the Government decision, all the services related to Critical Care Ambulances will be provided through National Health Mission (NHM) by dialing 108."

However, as per the public, there is a dire need of such a service at GMC Jammu. A recent case involving one Prem Lata, 55, a housewife from the mountainous district Rajouri, who was on ventilators at GMC Jammu (Emergency Block) last month, and the doctors treating her declared that she was not responding to the treatment given to her, so the chances of her survival were rare.

Lata was in the advanced stage of leukemia and after the word from doctors, her family members and other relatives preferred taking her back home so that she may witness certain rituals believed to bless the departing soul with heaven and salvation.

To shift her to Rajouri, a Critical Care Ambulance was needed for which Lata's son, Vicky, visited the In-charge Causality Medical Officer (CMO) at the Emergency Block of GMC Jammu with request for such an ambulance but the CMO expressed helplessness as the hospital had ordinary ambulances while Lata required a Critical Care Ambulance to shift her as she was on ventilator.

However, the staff at GMC Jammu helped the family by providing them a contact number of a private Critical Care Ambulance who demanded Rs. 12,000 as an assistant is also required for shifting the patients in Critical Care Ambulances but after negotiations the deal was fixed at Rs. 9500.

Lata died late in the night that particular day when she was shifted to her home but before that the family had performed all the necessary rituals which she herself witnessed.

After dialing at 108 it came to fore that the ambulances are provided free of cost either to shift a patient from a small medical institute to an advanced one or to shift patients to hospitals from some accident sites but they do not shift a critical patient from hospital to home in case the patient does not respond to the medical treatment.

However, the reputed medical institution Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura in Kashmir has the facility of Critical Care Ambulances since long back.

"Nine years back when I was serving at SKIMS Soura, we had such a facility there," informed a very senior doctor serving in Kashmir.