Srinagar: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo held a meeting of the Health & Medical Education (H&ME) Department Tuesday to take an appraisal of the functioning of the newly established 500-bedded Children’s Hospital.
According to an official press release, the Secretary of health; Principal, GMC Srinagar; Director of Health Kashmir; Administrator of Associated Hospitals, Kashmir; several HoDs of Paediatric Hospital and other concerned officers were present at the meeting.
It said the Chief Secretary while taking an assessment of the facilities being provided at the new 500-Bedded Paediatric Hospital at Bemina, observed that the aim of shifting this hospital from GB Pant, Sonwar, was to upgrade the facilities and introduce all the high-end procedures under one roof.
He maintained that it should be the endeavour of the hospital administration to meet these objectives without any delay as the infrastructure of the hospital has been highly upgraded. He underscored the need for the introduction of all the high-end procedures and diagnostics related to paediatric care in a specific timeline.
Dulloo also enjoined upon the officers of the department to go for hiring/recruitment of full-time faculty to fill all the vacancies there. He called for making strenuous efforts to get these critical positions of Professors, Associate Professors and others filled at an earliest so that the hospital extends best medical care to the patients in addition to introduction of DM or Fellowships under different specialities there.
He stressed on formulating a strategy to increase the seats in DM and that of Senior Residents (SRs) in the hospital to create a pool of experts in all the sub-specialities of Paediatrics in the UT.
The Secretary, H&ME, Dr Syed Abid Rashid Shah gave out the current status of services in the hospital with that of the plans to make it state of the art paediatric medical facility in the region.
He revealed that the department is in the process of preparing indents for the Public Service Commission (JKPSC) to advertise and fill all the vacancies in a time-bound manner. He further revealed that the Department of Paediatric Surgery would be shifted to Bemina Hospital till the end of this month.
It was further divulged that the Children Hospital at present offers care in 16 sub-specialities in addition to General Paediatrics. These include Paediatric Nephrology, Haematology, Cardiology, Neonatology, Neurology, Radiology, Psychology, Gastroenterology, Orthopedics etc.
The meeting was also apprised about the bed strength in each speciality and the position of faculty available in the hospital. It deliberated upon the issues faced by the hospital in terms of paramedical staff and other human resource, infrastructure requirements.
It also had discussions over optimal utilization of GB Pant, Hospital at Sonwar here with the department committing to come up with an appropriate plan soon to put this 200-bedded medical facility into the regular service of the public here.
