- ‘Many patients left SMHS hospital against medical advice because of fear of being spied’
- SSP refutes allegations
Fearing spying by police sleuths roaming around in civvies, many persons injured in police and CRPF action who were admitted at SMHS hospital have left the hospital against the medical advice of doctors.
Of the 720 patients, who were admitted to SMHS hospital in past 25 days, only 64 are presently undergoing treatment there.
“There is a lot of fear among patients here. They think they are being spied upon and police will put them behind bars anytime so they are leaving the hospital against the advice of the medical practitioners. In medical terms, we call it LAMA (Left Against Medical Advice),” said an administrator at SMHS hospital on the condition of anonymity.
“Couple of days ago, a patient had come with severe injury in his eye. He had been hit with a marble and needed proper treatment. However, after a couple of days, he left without taking discharge certificate from the hospital as is the procedure at every hospital. In 25 days, we have received lots of patients and have discharged as well. But still we should have at least 300-400 patients admitted as of now, but we have only 60. This shows how much fearful patients are.”
Suhail Ahmad, a patient from Bejbihera, said: “I am here from last 15 days, and in all these days I have seen some people keeping a close watch on us. They are neither the staffers nor are attendants of any patients here.”
“They keep a close vigil on us. And it’s not only me who has observed this, but doctors have also told us this.”
Muzamil Dar, an attendant, also shared similar experience. “We were outside the operation theater when Basit my nephew had to be operated, a person suddenly came from somewhere and asked us not to share any detail about the injury here and later we got to know that he was a police sleuth.”
Apart from pellets and bullets, a good number of people have been injured either because of beating or being hit by a stone.
“We have had cases where a patient had been severely beaten by police, but he leaves after his tests are done. Only those patients stay here who are having severe trauma, and they cannot manage without staying in the hospital,” the administrator said.
Medical Superintendent of SMHS hospital, Dr Nazir Chowdhary said, “I cannot comment why patients are leaving.”
However, SSP Srinagar, Amit Kumar refuted the allegations of snooping, saying, “This is not true”.
