The leftovers of meals lie scattered in the corridors of the Valley’s only children hospital G B Pant, oranges and bananas thrown by attendants lie on the marble floor, polyethenes and empty cartons are seen in the wards and used syringes are spotted at various corners of the hospital.

Attendants accompanying patients eat in the wards and the corridors of the hospital, littering everywhere. The walls and the floor of the hospital look dirty with the grime that has accumulated on them for years.

The foul smell of the rotten food which permeates through the hospital is nauseating and the sweepers say the attendants seem to hardly use the dustbins in the hospital which look cleaner than the corridors.

The unkempt condition of the hospital is due to the non availability of simple cleaning tools for the sweepers. “We do all the work manually, with the brooms and the buckets. This time we don’t even have the buckets and brooms and we wash the swabs with our hands under the taps,” said Sanitary Supervisor, Mukhtar Ahmed.

The sweepers say that they don’t even get the washing powder, cleaning soap and glycerine. “Before the hospital was shifted to this new place we used to get soap and glycerine at least thrice a year. Since 22 August 2005, after being shifted to G B pant, we have not been provided with Vaseline even once,” he said pointing towards his hands which looked rough and scaly.

The sweepers also attribute the poor sanitation of the hospital to the lack of security. With more than one entry points to the hospital, it has become impossible to control the influx of attendants coming from all over the valley.

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