The Army Medical Corps has earned respect as the “Saviours” of the “Warriors”, working round the clock to ensure that our Bravehearts are provided the best of medical care and lives are saved even if the fight is directly against death.

The corps has the largest network of hospitals with a total of 112 military hospitals located all over the country with excellent doctors and providing the best facilities to the family of military personnel and their dependents.

Of all the hospitals few of them have differentiated themselves from others due to the continuous work they perform and the immense trust which the personnel have lent in them.

92 Base Hospital, Badami Bagh Srinagar is one such hospital and it would not be an exaggeration if we consider it as the best one among all. The trust which the personnel have in the staff there is such that they feel if they are timely admitted to 92 Base Hospital they will be alive even if life is hanging by a thread.

Early history:-

The hospital was raised in Rawalpindi during the Second World War, in the year 1942, and was moved to different locations throughout the war.

After demonstrating its success in the World war, it reached Srinagar on October 2, 1948, during the Indo-Pak conflict and occupied the old Jammu and Kashmir state forces accommodation. It was later on organised as a static hospital and renamed 92 Base Hospital on 28 Aug 1970.

Basic information:-

92 Base Hospital is a 598 bedded multi-speciality hospital including all basic specialities namely, ENT, eye, dermatology, psychiatry, paediatrics and gynaecology catering for all the soldiers in the region and also providing trauma facilities to the civilians in the valley and thus is the lifeline of the valley. It is also equipped with best in class diagnostic facilities including automatic analysers, CT scanners, MRI and contains a licensed blood bank to meet the sudden requirements of blood in case of a casualty.

92 Base Hospital has truly lived upon its motto of “Touching hearts Saving lives” and is considered as the epitome of professionalism. The hospital extends its support not only to the Armed forces personnel, dependants and veterans but also to police and paramilitary forces with life-saving intervention in times of resuscitation. The excellent ‘Critical Management’ provided by the hospital has helped in saving many precious lives.

92 Base Hospital has proved itself in keeping its tradition of eminence inpatient care during peace as well as various conflicts in the region including the Kargil war, OP Rakshak, OP Parakaram and flash floods in Kashmir in Sep 2014 in which it saved and also conducted medical coordination for the rescued civilians. In the year 2020, the hospital faced a double challenge with both trauma cases and COVID-19 cases, and the patients were successfully treated with less than 1 per cent mortality in the case of COVID patients. The hospital can treat 40 casualties at a time.

Way of treatment:-

Most of the cases reporting to the hospital are of gunshot wounds and splinter injuries occurring during counter-insurgency operations and encounters. As soon as any such news of injury is received the person picking up the news plays a buzz for all the staff and specialities to get ready, the medical staff residing nearby reach the hospital in no time and this can happen at any of the odd hours.

Mostly the casualties are airlifted from the sites of encounters with the help of helicopters and reach the hospital in around half an hour, which is the time available to the medical staff to get things ready. On reaching the hospital the patient is taken for a preliminary checkup and necessary diagnosis is done, if the case requires an operation, the patient is shifted to Operation theatre, in other case bandaging and other such treatment may begin in the trauma centre.

The system of trauma has evolved over a while and now the success rate is higher in the case of medical interventions.

The most unique thing about the hospital is the variability in the cases reaching here and how the hospital deals with it, at one time it may be a bullet stuck in legs, hands and a normal splinter injury and at other times it may be bullet injury in the ribs, smashed bones and splinters inside the abdomen, each one of them requiring a unique way of treatment and care, and the way it is done with utmost accuracy is second to none.

The second thing which adds up in making 92 Base Hospital, the best one is its continuous performance from extremities to normal situations, to elaborate this one I would quote an example by Rtd. Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain Sir, “In the year 2012, most of the vulnerable army posts and garrisons were under risk of avalanches because of bad winters in Kashmir, and a major avalanche happened in Gurez garrison wiping out 18 good soldiers, three more casualties were also reported from Sonamarg. With 21 fatalities the priority now shifted to sending the remains of these warriors home as soon as possible, but before that necessary postmortem and documentation procedures had to be followed. The staff from 92 BH was up all night to perform the post mortem, stitches and prepare 21 cadavers in 24 hours along with all the necessary documentation and proving their mettle the staff of 92 Base Hospital made everything ready well in time”.

Awards and Honours:-

92 BH celebrated its Platinum Jubilee in the year 2017, with its excellent record of service and medical care completing 70 years and service ranging from World Wars to peacetime as of now. It has been the only medical unit to be awarded the Chief of Army Staff unit citation thrice along with the General Officer Commanding in Chief’s Unit Appreciation and the Director-General Military Services(Army) Rolling Trophy on two occasions.

Overall this the staff from this hospital has earned numerous individual awards of distinguished service and devotion to duty, and also recognitions from police and paramilitary forces. We convey the nation’s gratitude to its tireless doctors, nurses and medical staff who work continuously to keep people alive even though if all the hope may have been lost.