Srinagar: One of the premier hospitals of the Srinagar — Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital is having only one Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine in the emergency unit, giving tough time to ones during a health emergency, said several patients on Tuesday.
The patients said that while heading to the SMHS hospital in any health related issue, the doctors sometimes recommend, after examining the patient, for the ECG tests, which is being done in a small room just on the opposite side of the casualty area. They said that the ECG room only has one machine, which results in the long queues of patients, among whom some are often in critical conditions.
One of the patients said that they first are told to deposit ECG fees at one counter where a queue of attendants, getting Patient Cards, has to be faced with. Later, one has to come back to the ECG room and again to stand in a queue there, he said. “Sometimes maybe out of luck you would not see queues here but generally, the queues of patients are witnessed. There should have been at least two to three more ECG machines for the patients because a crucial time can be lost while waiting in a queue,” the patient said.
Another patient said that he had a panic attack days back and after coming to SMHS hospital, an ECG was recommended to him by a doctor but had to face a queue outside the ECG room. “Out of fear to stand longer there, after looking at the queue, I was almost feeling suffocated and had to take a deep breath. I felt I would die as my ECG was yet to be done. It was a harrowing experience for me,” the patient from Srinagar said.
The patients said that there should be few ECG machines to be installed in the emergency unit and a separate fee counter should be kept for the same, helping in to avoid the loss of time in the process, which can result in a major tragedy.
On contacting Medical Superintendent of SMHS Hospital Dr Kanwal Jeet Singh regarding the issue he said that the emergency section usually has one ECG machine and cannot put 15 machines there.
On asking Singh further questions, he did not answer it and said to visit the hospital in order to ask the query from him.