Amarnath pilgrims crowd city hospitals for mandatory health check-up

The online booking for Amarnath Yatra helicopter service started on Tuesday and the city hospitals have already started receiving pilgrims, who want to get their mandatory health check-up done.

The Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) website says it is mandatory for pilgrims to produce a health certificate issued by an authorised doctor. This certificate has to be shown at Pahalgam or Neelgrath, without which a person will not be able to board the helicopter or move further.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims visit the holy shrine in the high altitude region. In 2012, the Supreme Court of India had directed all government hospitals to start issuing mandatory health certificates free of cost. This led to people queuing up at hospitals months before the Yatra starts.

"Physicians at the hospital have numerous patients. This is an added check-up list every season. The tickets have just started to sell and the Yatra would begin in June, but 150 people have already taken their certificates for the season," Dr S C Chetal, Medical Superintendent of the Guru Gobind Singh Hospital, said.

The check-up includes blood tests, ECG, and X-ray. A certificate is provided based on the results. Anaemia, hypertension (BP), and diabetes are main reasons for rejection. Children under the age of 13, elderly people over 75 and over six-week pregnant women will not be allowed this year. The rush at hospitals further swells in May.

"We do not have a separate department or OPD for the same. Pilgrims come and add to the already existing OPD numbers. The free-of-cost tests have increased the number in the last few years," a senior doctor at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital said.