New Delhi, May 18: Virtually blaming Jammu and Kashmir government for the alarming infant fatalities at GB Pant Children’s Hospital in the Valley, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Friday said the government there has failed to upgrade healthcare facilities despite Centre’s full support.
Replying to a supplementary by Independent MP from Ladakh, Hassan Khan during Question Hour in Lok Sabha on deaths of 368 children in five months in the state-run GB Pant Hospital in Srinagar, Azad said; “Centre extends facilities to the state governments, but it is up to them on how to benefit from it. What can one do if they choose not to benefit from the same.”
Replying to another query by Khan that an inquiry had revealed the high rate of infant deaths was due to lack of nurses in the Hospital, Azad said lamented the slow progress in opening training schools for nurses in the state.
“Jammu and Kashmir has been sanctioned 20 Auxillary Nurse and Midwives (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) Schools in the past three years, but I have to say this with regret that the progress on this has been very slow," Azad, a former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, said.
“We have sanctioned ANM and GNM Nursing Schools and even sanctioned money. We (Centre) cannot build the schools, they have to be built by the state governments,” he said.
The Minister admitted that there was shortage of ANM and GNM training schools in areas where there was shortage of such staff.
Azad said for the first time the Centre had sanctioned 269 ANM and GNM schools for under served areas.
Pertinently, the query regarding infant deaths at GB Pant hospital was raised not by any MP from the Valley by Hassan Khan from Ladakh.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 18 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 18 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 IST