Srinagar, May 20: Lack of facilities at Kashmir’s lone children hospital—GB Pant—is forcing many a parents to shift their ailing children to other health institutes in Srinagar for ‘better treatment.’ A couple of wards at the SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) here house children who have been shifted from the GB Pant hospital due to lack of facilities there.
 The pediatric and neo-natal care unit of SKIMS has admitted children, mostly referred or shifted from the GB Pant hospital. Their parents allege that the children hospital is without any facility and that is why they shifted their children to SKIMS.
 “My daughter developed abdominal swelling on 3rd May and we immediately shifted her to GB Pant Hospital. After remaining there for five days, we had to shift her to SKIMS because the doctors couldn’t make her proper diagnosis due to which her health deteriorated,” said Muhammad Sultan Sheikh, father of 12-year-old Yasmeena of Handwara. Yasmeena is in the SKIMS Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PCIU) since May 8.
 A doctor in the PCIU said Yasmeena was suffering from acute anemia when she was admitted to SKIMS “but the cause of the disease has not been located clearly.” “Anemia is caused due to various reasons but her case was a serious one as it was not a nutrition-related anemia,” the doctor, wishing anonymity, said. “We conducted bone marrow test on her and she was diagnosed with blood disorder which could have been located early through proper examination at GB Pant, where she was initially admitted.”
 Murtaza is another baby boy admitted in the pediatric ward of SKIMS. Doctors have diagnosed him with a brain abnormality named ‘Seizure Disorder’. “We fled from the GB Pant Hospital after spending 27 days there. That hospital is in a mess,” said Ghulam Muhammad, father of Murtaza.
 Doctors treating him said he was put on anti-convulsion and antibiotics like Ceftriaxone and Amikacin continuously for 27 days “without proper diagnosis.” “When we admitted him to SKIMS, we carried out all baseline tests like EEG and CT scan which helped us in making his proper diagnosis,” the doctors at pediatric ward of SKIMS said.
 Asked why they fled from the GB Pant Hospital, Ghulam Muhammad said “the condition of our child didn’t improve for 27 days. It rather deteriorated. So we were left with no option but to flee from there.”
 Similarly, two infants admitted in the Neo-Natal ICU of the SKIMS are suffering from renal failure after doctors at GB Pant hospital have referred for “lack of such treatment in the hospital.”
 Pertinently, the GB Pant hospital has already come in the line of fire over infant deaths, with Jammu and Kashmir Government ordering a probe into the recurring casualties.
 People say the Government must ensure that all facilities are put in place in GB Pant Hospital so that people don’t suffer.
 “There are some diseases like Perinatal asphyxia, sepsis, prematurely of lungs, encephalitis and meningitis which need specialized treatment. But when there is no testing facility in GB Pant Hospital, how can we expect survival of children,” questioned a medico.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 IST