Srinagar: Valley’s lone Paediatric hospital has failed to keep pace with the rapidly increasing patient inflow, as it continues to shrink in terms of space; besides, facing an acute shortage of staff.
GB Pant Children Hospital in Srinagar is the only medical institution in the Kashmir region that caters to several thousand children every day, coming from the regions, besides Kashmir, like Kargil, Doda, Rajouri, Kargil, and Leh.
According to the official figures, Kashmir has an estimated population of 30 lakh children where as the lone paediatric hospital has a bed capacity of 150.
Abdul Rasheed has travelled all the way from the Pulwama for the treatment of his 10-month-old daughter Sumaina.
“It is our third day here. My daughter who was born with cleft palate, a hole in the roof of the mouth, has undergone surgery. Previous night at around 11:30, my daughter developed some complicacy. I went to every ward to look for a doctor or nurse and could locate a nurse only after half an hour’s search,” said visibly upset Abdul Rasheed.
Afrooza Akhtar, aunt of baby Sumaina, is resting on floor of the hospital ward. While sharing the ordeal of their stay in the hospital, Afrooza said: “Nurses and doctors visit the ward only when the attendants ask them to do so. One nurse attends three to four beds alone. Not only this, the hospital is overcrowded. Sometimes two patients are compelled to share a single bed,” she says.
In Ward No. 6 of the hospital, another patient Hikmat, four-month-old baby, is accompanied by his grandparents and they too are unhappy the way the hospital is running.
“We are fed up with the healthcare system of the hospital. We expect a proper treatment here but the system prevailing here is disappointing,” says the grandfather of Hikmat.
It is pertinent to mention here that the international nursing council recommends a nurse-patient ratio to be 1:3 in general wards. But the current nurse-patient ration in GB Pant hospital is no near to the said ratio.
“Currently, there are around 110 nurses in the hospital, indeed very less to take care of all the patients. We are overburdened by the workload here. New recruitment of nurses should be done by the government to put an end to the shortage of staff here,” says a nurse.
Interestingly, president, Doctor Association Kashmir (DAK), Nisar ul Hassan in a recent statement expressed concern over the serious shortage of nursing staff in Kashmir hospitals which he had held responsible for high mortality rates in the valley.
