SRINAGAR Stray dog menace in hospitals across Srinagar city is cause of inconvenience to the patients and visitors alike.
Packs of stray dogs are everywhere, in compounds, parking lots on entrances making it difficult for visitors to move during day time and scaring them away after dusk.
In SMHS, dogs can be seen basking in sun right at the gates of outpatient department buildings. Similar is the scene at JVC, Chest Disease Hospital, Lal Ded and other hospitals.
60 -year-old Habibullah of Bemina visited the JVC hospital to see his ailing relative undergoing treatment there. Dogs annoyed him as he waited outside the hospital building. The insanitary condition is the main cause which attracts dogs here. There is no check on it. It is dangerous for patients and the employees as well, Habibullah said.
Though the Srinagar Municipality is the actual culprit for not maintaining the sanitation people visiting hospitals can not escape blame, said Auqib Javed a journalist.
They litter the places, throw excess food stuff around thus luring the stray animals to otherwise restricted zones designated as health centres.
Mohammad Aslam, a patient from Jawharnagr, who visited the SMHS hospital for an ear check-up, said the hospital administration is unmoved. I have been coming here for a couple of days and observed the same condition. No employee here bothers to turn away the dogs, which is very unfortunate, he said.
The condition is no different at Bone and Joints hospital Barzulla.
Hundreds of patients visit the hospital, but dozens of stray dogs there annoy them.
Aliya, who attended her sister from Srinagars Rajbagh area, said, There is no check on the presence of dogs that cause fear among the female attendants when they go out to buy medicines.
Is this a hospital or a pound where dogs have been brought in from city areas? Alima, who accompanied her ailing mother here in Chest Disease Hospital questioned. They usually feed on the biomedical waste and this is going from bad to worse with each passing day, she said.
She said the hospital administration should take appropriate steps or approach the concerned government authorities to avoid any dog bite incident inside the hospital compound.
One of the officials of the health department said that the hospital administration cannot stop the dogs from entering the hospital compounds.
It is a public place and dogs also gather; it is the responsibility of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to get the dogs out, he said, adding that the SMC sometimes catch the dogs but not so often.
Unless the SMC acts on it proactively, the mess will be there, he said.
Meanwhile, one of the officials of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation said that the corporation would look into the issue shortly.
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