Srinagar, Aug 14: A 25-year-old intern doctor from Gunthal village of Surankote in Poonch, who was pursuing his internship at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, died early Friday morning after developing pneumonia and suffering complications, his colleagues said.
The deceased, identified as Dr Ahjaz Ul Islam, was an MBBS student of the 2021 batch and had joined his compulsory rotating internship a few months ago. He was posted at the Chest Diseases Hospital, Dalgate, an associated hospital of GMC Srinagar.
According to his colleagues, Dr Ahjaz was taken to the casualty department of SMHS Hospital on Tuesday, where he underwent several tests. He was subsequently admitted to the hospital and later shifted to the Chest Diseases Hospital for further treatment.
He died at around 4 am on Friday, leaving his colleagues and the medical fraternity across Jammu and Kashmir shocked. His family had reached Srinagar on Thursday, while his body was taken to Poonch on Friday for the last rites.
Dr Ahjaz was the only son of a retired government teacher.
His colleagues have raised concerns over the circumstances surrounding his illness and treatment, while calling for an official review of the case.
“We have heard that he was suffering from pneumonia and subsequently went into septic shock, with reports also suggesting a possible hospital-acquired infection. The exact diagnosis and sequence of events, however, need to be established from his medical records and through an impartial inquiry,” one of his colleagues said.
They questioned whether a critically ill patient requiring intensive-care management should have been shifted to a facility where, they alleged, adequate ICU and ventilator support was not available.
They also alleged that senior doctors were not available during night shift at that time at CD Hospital.
The doctors said the incident should also prompt a broader review of the safety of interns and other healthcare workers in hospitals.
“More importantly, this incident should force us to look at the larger issue of healthcare-worker safety in our institutions,” they said.
Intern doctors said SMHS Hospital is one of the major tertiary-care centres in J&K, but concerns persist regarding critical-care capacity, triaging, infection-control practices, sanitation and the availability of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
They said that limited triage capacity at a major tertiary-care hospital could raise concerns about the segregation and prioritisation of critically ill and potentially infectious patients.
“Our doctors and interns routinely come into direct contact with patients suffering from tuberculosis, respiratory infections, hepatitis B and C, HIV and other potentially transmissible infections. Interns are among the healthcare workers who spend considerable time at the bedside. They can’t be expected to work safely without adequate PPE, infection-control measures, proper triaging, isolation facilities and occupational-safety protocols,” they said.
The intern doctors have also raised questions regarding internship postings, particularly the posting of interns at the Chest Diseases Hospital.
They referred to the National Medical Commission’s Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship framework and sought clarification from GMC Srinagar on the regulatory basis for the internship posting and the facilities available to interns at the institution.
“If GMC Srinagar has made Chest & Disease Hospital a compulsory posting for interns despite this framework, the administration should publicly clarify the basis for doing so and the exact regulatory provision under which this has been implemented,” they said.
“This is not about opposing a particular department or refusing clinical work. It is about asking whether interns are being posted in environments where the required infrastructure, supervision, infection-control measures and emergency support are actually available,” they added.
The doctors demanded a transparent review of the circumstances surrounding Dr Ahjaz’s illness, transfer, treatment and eventual death.
“If there were deficiencies in critical-care facilities, infection control, triaging, PPE, referral protocols or internship safety, they must be identified and corrected before another healthcare worker pays the price,” they said.
The death has saddened the medical fraternity across Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Mohammad Momin Khan, health activist and Co-Convenor of IMA JDN J&K, expressed deep condolences to the bereaved family in a post on X.
He mourned the “tragic and untimely” loss of Dr Ahjaz Ul Islam, describing him as a young doctor serving at GMC Srinagar and a close associate.
