Kupwara, May 22 (KNO): An elderly person who was mauled by dogs was allegedly denied treatment after he was made to return unattended from two health centers in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Friday. Interestingly, the Block Medical Officer (BMO) has come up with a unique excuse to defend the people at health centres, saying that it was not their responsibility to treat the patients from other jurisdiction.
Eyewitness told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that a patient from Awura village of Kupwara who visited out-patient department (OPD) at DH Kupwara on Friday morning was directed to visit Sogam sub-district hospital for anti-rabies injection where he was made to return back without providing any treatment.
They said that he was forced to move from one place to the other for want of treatment and injection as the health authorities kept denying treatment to him.
One of his relative who was accompanying him said they made desperate attempts to reach to the officials but they didn't bother to treat the patient.
“After being denied treatment at both health centres, we went to the main market to buy anti-rabies injection. This is sheer negligence on part of the health authorities here,” they said.
When contacted Block Medical Officer Kupwara, Dr Zafar Ahmad told KNO that the patients jurisdiction was not Kupwara so he is supposed to visit Sogam health centre for treatment.
“It's not our responsibility to treat the patients from other jurisdiction,” he said.
Chief Medical Officer Kupwara was not available for his comments on the issue—(KNO)