GB Pant admn blames referrals from districts for high infant mortality

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 31: After facing huge public outrage over the death of infants in the GB Pant Hospital last year, the administration of the only paedetirc hospital blamed District Hospitals authorities for late referrals of the infants.
Dr Muneer Masoudi, Medical Superintendent G B Pant Hospital said that there was always a huge pressure on this hospital due to unnecessary referrals and doctors’ carelessness in district hospitals.
He said the latest report suggested that there was late referral from District Hospitals and most of the cases were beyond repair.
He said that most of the cases were referred from District Hospital Anantnag that was why the recent report clearly mentioned that every month most of the children deaths were from Anantnag district.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Qaiser senior pediatrician said that first few hours after child’s birth are crucial and if the care is not taken death is bound to happen.
“You have to take care of a baby during his first hours and if there is negligence, chances of death are high,” Qaiser said.
Speaking to the Civil Society Forum Kashmir (CSFK) and Salman Soz, who paid their visit to the hospital and monitored the ground level functioning of the hospital, the superintendent of G B Pant Hospital, Principal Government Medical College, Srinagar, Dr Rafiq Pampori and other senior children specialists suggested that private hospitals should engage pediatricians for the safety of new born babies.
“The private hospitals here only go for operation phase and in case the child is not well or there is any problem, they refer these children to Government Hospitals and it takes a lot of time to send a child this was also high death of infants,” they said.