The alarming rate of neonatal and child deaths at Valley’s lone children’s hospital is a symptom of a large malaise that over the years has been left unattended by the government. The problem of acute health infrastructure deficit in the state aside, there are a number of other factors that together represent this malaise in the healthcare system of J&K. In case of G. B. Panth hospital, for example, a number of disturbing things have come to fore that stare in the face of the government pointing to its indifference towards raising the child healthcare standards. It is quite disgusting that a ‘drug mafia’ reportedly running in the tertiary hospital has escaped the eye of the government over the years. Similarly, the hygiene and sanitation in the hospital have been left to a defunct Sewage Treatment Plant in the ground floor of the hospital whose pungent smell serves as a constant trouble to the patients. The hospital all along its history has faced the low doctor/nurse-patient ratio. With no strong child healthcare facilities at the district hospitals, the lone tertiary facility at Srinagar has been facing the brunt of huge rush from the peripheries. As if this was not enough, the child patient care in the hospital has become a victim of the alleged lobbyism in the hospital. When it comes to the facilities, much less a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants, the hospital did not even have the bare minimum critical facilities like the ventilators, nebulizers, etc. Amid this situation, what comes as a shock is that the state has not even shown any interest to take the benefit of some centrally sponsored schemes that could have fairly helped the situation. There is no scope for losing any further time. The government should immediately act, work out both short-term and long-term measures to save state’s future citizens. In the short term, take corrective measures in the existing hospital, and in the long term, start work on a new hospital for children.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 IST