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SKIMS under fire after dead Covid-19 patient’s family alleges ill treatment
The hospital administration said their mandate is to treat the patients and after any death the body is handed over to the district administration or health authorities so that the protocol is followed.
The management of Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS-Soura) has come under sharp criticism over the way the body of a Covid-19 positive patient and her family were treated on Wednesday evening.
A 65-year-old woman of Srinagar, who was admitted at SKIMS-Soura on July 8 after her Covid-19 test results came positive, succumbed to the disease on Wednesday evening.
Her family alleged that they were made to wait for hours to take the body and were not provided any casket or help in the burial process. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media in which the family members are seen questioning the hospital authorities as to how they will be able to transport the body on an infirm and dirty stretcher.
“After following SoPs and protocol and waiting for three hours, we were provided a half-broken dirty stretcher and no coffin. We were also told that no one will aid or guide the burial process and we should do it on our own,” said the deceased’s son Rameez Makhdoomi, a journalist.
“Officials at the control room were insensitive, busy in their own chit chats and at this moment our patience broke all barriers and we lashed out at them,” he said.
Finally, after the ordeal was witnessed by many on social media, the family was able to bury the body with help from relatives, friends and volunteers.
The hospital administration said their mandate is to treat the patients and after any death the body is handed over to the district administration or health authorities so that the protocol is followed.
Hospital officials said it was a delay on the part of the district administration and the health authorities. “When the patient in question expired, the same was conveyed to the district administration and health authorities by control room SKIMS, nodal officer as well as medical superintendent. Delay in receiving a team from concerned officials created anxiety among the patient’s attendants,” said medical superintendent of SKIMS Dr Farooq Jan in a statement.
He said to tide over the crisis, SKIMS provided an ambulance in violation of established norms. “It was then when attendants started demanding a coffin and four personnel for carrying out the burial which is nowhere in the protocol for handling Covid-19 bodies as laid down by the ICMR. Instead the body has to be put in a designated bag and outer surface has to be decontaminated by sodium hypochlorite… Providing people for burial is not a mandate of SKIMS,” he said.
Calls to Kashmir’s director health Sameer Mattoo yielded no response.
People have castigated the way SKIMS handled the situation.
“If two sons have to wait for hours with the body of their mother outside the hospital while officials are busy blaming each other on who gets the coffin, what can be more inhumane than that? Sheer mismanagement displayed at SKIMS at the cost of traumatised families,” said Shuja ul Haq, president of the Kashmir Press Club.
“SKIMS is the leading health institute of Kashmir… If the administration takes proper care, such things will not happen. It is not the first such case…SKIMS is the backbone of Kashmir in the medical field but they need to look into its management,” said Basharat Hussaini, an engineering student of Srinagar.
“SKIMS is in pathetic shape from top to bottom. I would have not been able to empathise to all fellow Kashmiris be it a patient or an attendant, if I would have not faced it myself. Just a few days in SKIMS made me realise how bad our health infrastructure is and we can do nothing about it other than just share our thoughts on social platforms,” said Seema Nazir, a local.
