In the lone maternity and childcare hospital of south Kashmir, the pregnant women and newborns are being exposed to life-threatening diseases.
Reason: The operationtheatre of the facility upgraded to the associated hospital of GovernmentMedical College (GMC) Anantnag is operating in unhygienic conditions.
“Doctors, as well as the patients, are made to use the OTdresses procured by the hospital administration decades back. The dress is wornout and is not even autoclaved thus exposing both to various infections,” saida doctor.
He said there is no proper mechanism for waste- disposal inthe theatre. “The segregation of waste material is important to prevent thespread of infections like Hepatitis C and HIV but here gauze, plastic, sharpsand other general wastes are dumped in the same bin and then lifted from hereby the sweepers,” a doctor said.
Ideally, the scrub station of the theatre should be justoutside the theatre but here it is placed inside. There are only two sinks andthey are not cleaned at all and hence stink, he said.
“The linen used to drape the pregnant woman and the new-bornis decades old and is not even sterilized,” another doctor said.
He said ideally disposable linen should have been availablein the theatre but it is not to be.
“The surgical instruments used during procedures are obsoleteand should have been discarded by now but doctors have no choice but to use thesame while performing surgeries,” the doctor said.
He said even the switcher material available for surgerypurpose is obsolete.
“The anaesthetists don’t have proper work station – don’thave the facility for self-ventilation and thus have to rely on old anaesthesiamachines only.”
The operation tables should have been multipurpose whichcould be adjusted to make patients comfortable but here they are old andrust-eaten.
The worst, this hospital theatre is the only one where a gasheater is put to use.
Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr Mir Ji Andrabiwhile acknowledging the lack of basic infrastructure in the hospital said, “Allthe issues can be addressed once we have a proper building to operate in.”
He said he will take up theissue of shifting the hospital to GMC Anantnag associated hospital premisestill the work on new maternity hospital is accomplished.
Principal GMC Anantnag, DrShowkat Jeelani said, “Yes the theatre of the hospital lacks proper hygiene butsince the GMC took over we are trying to improve its condition.”
He, however, said the lack of adequate space in the hospitalis hampering its overall functioning.