Srinagar hospitals readying to resume functioning

Hospitals in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital which suffered huge damage to diagnostic equipment in the recent floods, Saturday started clean-up operations to resume routine functioning as soon as possible.

State heath department authorities said here Saturday: "Clean-up operations at the hospitals have started and once electricity and water supply is restored, these hospitals will be ready for routine work.

Fifty-eight mobile health clinics have been set up in Srinagar even as water has been drained out from the G.B. Pant Hospital, L.D. Hospital and SMHS Hospital, officials said adding that four mobile hospitals have been pressed into service.

In the bone and joint hospital, functional for the past one week, one block has been converted into a gynae and obstetrics unit. The maternity hospital at Sanat Nagar is already working round the clock, the officials said and added that all district hospitals were running normally.

Health minister Taj Mohi ud Din, who is personally monitoring the resumption of health services in the Valley directed the officials to begin anti-measles vaccination in the flood-hit areas on war footing from Saturday.

The SMHS Hospital has suffered losses of around Rs. 100 crore to its machinery and diagnostic equipment in floods.

The health minister, alongwith a team of officials, Friday took stock of the damage at the hospital, health department officials said.