Fourteen years ago, in 2002, when late Mufti Sayeed headed the first coalition Government of Congress and PDP, he had announced building a Trauma Hospital in Pattan in District Baramulla of North Kashmir. It was to be a 25-bed hospital to cater to the trauma patients owing to road accident on the National Highway. The hospital was scheduled to be completed by 2008. It has to be said that lives of many people dying owing to road accident could be saved if they received timely medical support especially when road accidents happen on the National Highway. Since the year 2013, it is estimated that over 3,000 people lost their lives owing to road accidents. It is also believed by responsible medical sources that if these victims of road accident had received medical treatment in time many of them could have been saved. In other words they believe that most of the cases could be salvageable provided proper an adequate medical support is made available to them in time. But how can that support come in absence of special hospitals and medical aid available within the shortest possible time. Carrying the gravely injured people to main hospitals in the city takes time and the loss of blood cannot be prevented. In this way administration developed the idea of having a Trauma Hospital at Pattan in North Kashmir that could cater to the needs of road accident victims in entire North Kashmir. It would have covered a vast area right up to the last village in Lolab Valley or Gurez.
Why was the work on the proposed Trauma Hospital suspended during the National Conference Government that succeeded the first PDP-BJP coalition is a mystery. How unfortunate that we have fallen in the bad habit of politicizing each and everything that we are dealing with. Is the construction of a hospital something to be politicized? Local residents say that the work on the construction of the hospital was going on smoothly but after the PDP-Congress Government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad fell, the construction work came to a standstill and the project remained unattended for a long time. However, another local informed person said that now that the building of the Trauma Hospital in Pattan is completed, the State Health Department is not issuing orders that would make it functional. The reason why the Health Department is not issuing the orders again is mystery… Maybe it has not the requisite medical staff available or that it has no funds to procure medical equipment. Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is that fourteen years is too long a time to keep a people waiting for something promised to them. The question is who is at a loss owing to inordinate delay in the completion of the hospital. Obviously, the people who unfortunately meet with road accident and could be saved if medical support was available in time are the real sufferers.
Now PDP is back in power. The departed leader had laid the foundation stone of the hospital in Pattan. We feel it is the pious duty of the present Government which has inherited the mantle to see to it that the wishes of the late Chief Minister are fulfilled and the hospital in Pattan, which according to our information will now be Sub-District-cum- Trauma Hospital, is made functional. After a long delay, this Trauma Hospital should now be equipped with most advanced accessories and facilities and the best doctors should be deputed there. It is so because the local people have waited such a long time and they have been nursing deep expectations of having the best medical facilities so that patients are not compelled to be carried to Srinagar main hospital. It will be a tribute to the memory of late Mufti Sahib.
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