GMC: Defunct lifts welcoming attendants for past one month

One of lifts to be op'l soon, approval for another awaited: Officials

S.SHEKHAR

JAMMU: Hundreds of patients and their attendants, who visit Government Medical College & Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu daily, are facing great hardships these days as the twin lifts at this premiere medical institution went completely defunct owing to some technical faults since a month.
Lifts are mainly required for shifting of critical as well as other patients from ground floor to different wards located on various levels (floors) of the hospital complex but ironically, the patients are being shifted through 'ramp way' only, which is not only time consuming but some time may prove fatal to critical patients while being shifted to Wards or to Operation Theatre. Meanwhile, climbing stairs too is adding miseries to the visitors and attendants of the patients.
Most of the patients, who are already suffering with varied ailments, find themselves in lurch as they have to be moved from one floor to another and so via ramp way or the stairs for undergoing different kind of medical tests as well as for checkups in Out Patient Departments (OPDs) as suggested by the doctors.
According to reliable sources, several patients have died while they were being shifted either to the wards in upper floors or from there to down floors during last one month.
One of the critical patients, who was admitted in a ward at 4th floor of the hospital died today evening while being shifting by his family members, whose health reportedly deteriorated and was being shifted to the Emergency Ward- at the ground floor.
Talking to The News Now, an attendant of the deceased patient preferring anonymity said, "We were in the hospital for last few days and due to defunct lifts we have faced great difficulty while shifting of our patient each time." "As the lift was lying defunct we were left with no other option but to move through the ramp path or climb the stairs, which is very distressful."
Dr. Dara Singh, Medical Superintendent, GMC & Hospital, Jammu, when contacted, said, "I have already taken up this issue with the concerned authorities and asked them to make the lifts functional at the earliest."
"I have also proposed installation of one more lift at the same place under the hospital plan, for which estimate has been sent to the concerned authority."
Dr. Singh further informed that required funds too have been released to the Mechanical Wing of the hospital, which takes care of installation and maintenance of the lifts and repair of one of the lifts is underway while the second one has to be fully replaced with the new.
"The third lift, which was meant for staff of the hospital only, is also out of order for past quite some time which also needs to be replaced as its parts are not available in the market," he added.
Meanwhile, Manish Khurana, Executive Engineer, Mechanical Wing, GMC&H, Jammu, told The News Now that stabilizer of one of the lifts developed some technical snag and has became defunct but required estimate for new stabilizer has been submitted, for which approval from the concerned authority is awaited.
He, however, added that the work on the second lift is on, which has been installed freshly but it will take another 10 to 15 days to become operational.
It is pertinent to mention here that lifts were installed at the Government Medical College & Hospital Jammu about 13 years ago and during this period, they were repaired and replaced several times but now have become totally obsolete due to product life time and need to be fully replaced.