Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 6: A medicos’ body in Kashmir have expressed “shock over infant deaths” and blamed poor health care system in peripheral hospitals and lack of life saving equipments and unqualified doctors for these deaths.
Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) president, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, today said that it is lack of emergency neonatal care in peripheral hospitals that is responsible for infant deaths. “Peripheral hospitals lack both life saving equipments and qualified doctors that could save lives of these fragile neonates,” he said, adding: “The established ‘Sick Neonatal Care Units’ in district hospitals are eyewash as they lack in infrastructure and trained staff.”
He said the commonest cause of infant mortality is birth asphyxia and neonatal sepsis which is because of unhygienic deliveries conducted by untrained and unqualified persons in peripheries. “It is the ‘golden minute’ that could make a difference between life and death of a fragile neonate. The majority of sick neonates who are referred from peripheral to GB Pant hospital either die on way or reach hospital in a morbid condition as the golden time which is crucial for their survival is wasted in transit,” he said.
Hassan said that the GB Pant is a tertiary care hospital which has been created for advanced neonatal and paediatric care especially for patients with ‘diagnostic dilemma’. “The purpose of GB Pant hospital is to impart medical education to undergraduates and postgraduates and quality research. Some senior doctors who have failed in teaching and research have become informers of certain forces and are disseminating incorrect information about GB Pant hospital,” he said.
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