Kashmir appalled by 400 baby deaths in state hospital

The deaths of over 400 children in the past five months in Kashmir Valley's only paediatric hospital -- the G B Pant hospital in Srinagar -- have triggered social, political and administrative commotion, reports Mukhtar Ahmad.

Confirming that 400 children had died in the hospital, Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Medical Education R S Chib ordered a high-level inquiry into the causes of deaths.

The one-man inquiry headed by the director of the prestigious Soura Medical Institute, Dr Showkat Zargar, blamed 'the capacity deficiency on many fronts for the deaths' in his preliminary report submitted to the government on Thursday.

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The capacity deficient areas pointed out by Dr Zargar in his report include manpower, equipment and overall management of the services of the hospital which caters to the whole of the Valley in terms of infant care.

Following the submission of the interim report, the state government attached the head of department and hospital medical superintendent, Dr Javed Chowdhary, and ordered despatch of reinforcement of staff and equipment.

Jammu and Kashmir Health Commissioner M K Dwivedi admitted at a media conference late on Thursday evening that 'shortages of manpower and equipment have embarrassed everybody'.

He said following the submission of the report, the government has initiated immediate steps so that all 'preventive and punitive measures' which include strengthening of the hospital infrastructure by way of procurement of equipment and put in place on fixed target which would include ventilators and other life saving equipment.

"Immediate steps have been initiated to augment manpower especially the paramedics and about 40 nurses and other staff will be posted for neonatology."

"It is an overcrowded hospital where sometimes four patients share the same bed. The government should take immediate steps to not only improve the infrastructure in the G B Pant hospital, but also try to decongest it by creating additional institutional facilities for infant care given the growth in the population," said a prominent physician.

At the political level, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party seized the opportunity to embarrass the coalition government headed by National Conference's Omar Abdullah by seeking direct intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 'to take note of the serious development that has affected hundreds of families in Kashmir'.

Engineer Abdul Rashid, the independent MLA from north Kashmir, held a demonstration outside the hospital located in the cantonment area to ventilate his anger at the deaths.

"This is a slaughter house," he told rediff.com, and added, "I will file an FIR in the local police station for the criminal negligence of hospital staff."

The separatists also stepped in with the hard-line Syed Ali Shah Geelani describing the deaths 'as genocide' and blamed the government for the deaths.

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