Srinagar, Nov 21: The Valley’s only children’s hospital, G B Pant Hospital, at Sonwar here is facing acute shortage of drugs, testing kits and other equipment needed for conducting various necessary tests on the patients.
 The parents and attendants of patients admitted in the hospital are forced to get the tests done from the private labs and diagnostic centres at exorbitant rates.
 “There is no facility in the hospital for conducting tests as simple as urine or stool examination. There are no testing kits, no reagents available,” said a doctor. “Presently only blood glucose tests are being done here.”
 “The hospital is supposed to be a speciality child care institute of the Valley but it has become worse than a dispensary. The hospital lacks simple testing kits or reagents, having other sophisticated equipments like CT Scans and MRI is still a distant dream,” he said.
 “I wonder if this is the condition of a centrally located hospital in a capital city, what will be the situation in the peripheral hospitals,” a doctor lamented.
 “Lately there has been a spurt in the patient deaths in the hospital which without any questioning could be attributed to the lack of facilities,” said another doctor.
 The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. M A Kamili, acknowledged that the hospital was short of testing kits but attributed the shortage to patient rush.
 “Yes, due to huge rush we often exhaust our stocks. And at times there is shortage from the suppliers,” he said.
 “We have taken up the matter with the Government and hope the problem be solved soon,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 IST