Asif Iqbal
Srinagar, Sep 26 : Patients at the Chest Diseases Hospital, Dalgate, continue to face prolonged disruption of essential diagnostic services, even as the Jammu and Kashmir Government has assured the Legislative Assembly that the hospital’s necessary infrastructure requirements are being maintained. The status of the hospital raises a larger question over whether the House was adequately apprised of the actual condition of its diagnostic infrastructure.
The Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) facility, as learnt by GNS, has remained non-functional for nearly two months, the Diffusing Capacity of the Lungs for Carbon Monoxide (DLCO) facility has been unavailable for over six months, while the CT scan facility has remained non-functional for nearly 10 months. The Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS) facility is also reportedly unavailable, even as the hospital caters to thousands of patients with respiratory ailments, including asthma, COPD and interstitial lung diseases, making the prolonged disruption of specialised diagnostic services a matter of direct concern for patient care.
This comes against the backdrop of a starred question raised by Lal Chowk MLA Sheikh Ahsan Ahmed Pardesi in the Legislative Assembly regarding the hospital’s infrastructure and the proposal for its new building. While acknowledging that CD Hospital is functioning from an old heritage building, the Government maintained that “the required standards of Medical Treatment is the priority of the Department” and that “the necessary requirements of the Hospital in terms of infrastructure are maintained.” With several vital diagnostic facilities now learnt to have remained non-functional for months, the disparity raises an uncomfortable question, was the Assembly adequately apprised of the hospital’s actual operational condition, or did the response give the House an incomplete picture of the facilities available to patients?
The CT scan facility presents an especially serious concern. Although the CT facility has reportedly been rectified at Government Medical College’s associated GB Pant Hospital, that arrangement does not resolve the problem for critically ill patients admitted at CD Hospital. If a ventilated patient requires an urgent CT scan, shifting the patient to another hospital requires continuous ventilation, monitoring, medical supervision and suitable transport. It also raises the question of whether such a transfer can always be undertaken without delay or risk, particularly when the patient’s condition is unstable. More fundamentally, why should a specialised tertiary-care chest hospital have to depend on another institution for CT imaging? A functional CT facility within CD Hospital would eliminate the need to expose critically ill patients to the logistical and clinical risks associated with inter-hospital transfers.
When GNS sought a response from Medical Superintendent Dr Sameena Saba, she initially gave unclear replies and directed the queries towards the hospital administration. During subsequent interaction, she acknowledged the issues being raised but questioned the sources of the information, instead of coming clear on the matters raised.
Principal GMC Srinagar Prof Iffat Hassan Shah was also approached for her response, but no substantive clarification was forthcoming. Instead, the reporter was asked to visit her office to discuss the matter.
Head of department CD, Dr Khursheed Ahmad Dar was also contacted for his response. He said he was busy somewhere and subsequently did not return the call or provide a response regarding the status of the diagnostic facilities.
MLA Sheikh Ahsan Ahmed Pardesi, who had himself raised the hospital’s infrastructure issue in the Assembly, was also contacted after being briefed about the latest status of the facilities. He said he was in the middle of a meeting and asked to be contacted later. Subsequent attempts to reach him were unsuccessful, with his phone later remaining switched off.
The situation comes despite a GNS report published on November 25, 2025, which had already highlighted the non-functioning of several essential facilities at CD Hospital, including PFT machines, allergy testing systems, bronchoscopes and EBUS. The earlier report had also highlighted the absence of a functional lift at the hospital, which is spread across inclined terrain and caters to elderly and severely breathless patients, including those requiring oxygen support. Patients and attendants had then raised concerns over being directed towards private facilities for investigations, with the cost placing an additional burden on those unable to afford them.
The recurrence of equipment-related failures months after the earlier report raises questions over whether the deficiencies were comprehensively addressed or merely dealt with temporarily. It also places greater importance on the Government’s statement before the Assembly. The response does not necessarily mean that every individual machine was guaranteed to remain operational without interruption, but prolonged non-availability of several major diagnostic facilities warrants a precise explanation of what the department meant when it told the House that the hospital’s necessary infrastructure requirements were being maintained.
The Health and Medical Education Department now needs to place on record the present status of PFT, DLCO, CT and EBUS, the dates from which the facilities have remained unavailable, the reasons for the reported downtime, the corrective measures undertaken and the timelines for restoration. More importantly, it needs to clarify whether the operational status of these facilities was taken into account when the Government assured the Legislative Assembly that the hospital’s necessary infrastructure requirements were being maintained.
For patients, the issue is far more immediate than a Government reply or a building proposal awaiting statutory clearance. They need the diagnostic services required for their treatment to be available when they need them. And for an institution specifically established to provide specialised care for respiratory diseases, the question is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid, when will the Chest Diseases Hospital actually start living up to its name? (GNS)
