"This hospital has nothing. We only refer patients to other hospitals some of whom are serious and die on the way," says one of the senior doctors on the condition of anonymity. "This is shameful".

The 240 bedded hospital on the Srinagar-Baramulla National Highway near Bemina could cater to the entire north Kashmir and some parts of Srinagar as well. But except for the routine examination of the outdoor patients, the hospital is defunct.

The hospital's emergency theatre is not operational. "If someone has a head or any slightly serious injury outside, the hospital does not treat the injured," a doctor says.

Similarly, Obstetrics department (maternity) is non functional. The labour room is locked. There are less than six patients in the maternity ward. "We only do cold surgeries like uterus removal here and hardly any deliveries," a doctor says.

The Orthopaedic department has to work without an image intensifier machine which is extremely important during operations. This device is available in almost every district hospital in the valley. "It is impossible to do surgeries without an image intensifier. What can we do, no one listens to us," a senior doctor complains.

The hospital doesn't even have a separate Emergency Operation Theatre (OT). These surgeries are done in the regular OT which is against MCI guidelines. There is no critical Cardiac Care Unit as well as an ICU, no CT scan machine and not even a needle destroyer.

The doctors complain that there have been almost no mortality and morbidity meetings in the hospital. It is a procedure in which the cause of deaths or emergencies is discussed between the faculty and the principal.

The undergraduate medical college hospital was established by a private trust, Kashmir Medical Trust in 1988. The college was later taken over by the Government and handed over to SKIMS hospital in 1999.

The hospital doesn't have its own full time principal. "When some senior doctor from SKIMS hospital nears retirement, he is sent to this place as a principal and he even retains his charge there. What justice can he do to this full fledged hospital," a doctor says. "They (SKIMS) never feel the same kind of loyalty and sense of belonging to this hospital as they do to their own hospital."

The principal of the SKIMS medical college, Dr Jeelani Qadri, is going to retire in March. Apart from being Principal of SKIMS College, he is also the Head of Department (HoD) of the hospital Administration and Dean of medicine in SKIMS as well.

"I work 14 hours a day and do justice to all my duties here and in hospital. But if there is someone (senior doctor) eligible, he should be given the sole charge as the principal of this institution," Qadri says.