The Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) has launched an ad blitz. Instead of taking corrective measures and to procure basic surgical equipments, the hospital is spending lakhs of rupees on advertisements these days.

For the past more than a week now, the administration of the valley's lone tertiary care hospital is issuing advertisements worth lakhs of rupees to portray a positive image of the institute and calls for ‘restraint’.

"While the functioning of SKIMS may not be optimal, there are brilliant spots that we must capitalize on. The murkier things can be reasoned out through better facilitation and in depth understanding of the circumstances that the doctors and paramedical; staff of the SKIMS love and work in," read the advertisements published in local dailies. "Exercising restraint will help us function better".

The advertisements admit to the failure of the hospital in certain areas. "There is definite scope for improvement and the lacunae in various areas might have attracted the attention of well meaning journalists today but have since been appreciated by the administration. There are indolent wrong which need to be righted and the current administration has made multiple strides in that direction," the advertisement says. "(But) give the devil its due".

The ad blitz questions the criticism of the hospital. "Constructive criticism is welcomed but the personnel must not be hounded away by resorting to sting operations and unjust policing," it reads. Though the ad doesn't elaborate on the point, it is an apparent reference to the naming of the SKIMS professors, who are running private clinics across the valley.

... contd.