Children’s hospital has no Operation Theatre

Absence of facility puts lives of critically- sick neonates, children at risk; Govt unmoved

Kashmir’s lone children’s hospital at Sonwar here has no Operation Theatre and in the absence of the facility, doctors are forced to shift critically- sick children and neonates to other hospitals for surgical interventions.

Sources said when the GB Pant hospital was set up as a general category institute many years ago, it was equipped with two “ Operation Theatres”. “ They were meant to be general category theatres but were never made functional even when the hospital was converted into pediatric facility. The Theatres are locked ever since the hospital became functional,” they said. Most of the employees including nurses and other paramedical staff, whom talked to, said they have no information about such Theatres existing in the hospital. “ There is no such Theatre,” said two senior nurses.

The “ theatres” are however located on the extreme end of the corridor, on left side of Ward No 8. “ These Theatres are out of use,” said an employee who was coming out from the side housing the Theatres. The front wall of the Theatres has been dismantled and sources said the hospital authorities have decided to convert the facilities and the space around them including a couple of rooms into Microbiological Laboratory and Blood Bank.

“ This is the new plan,” said the employee. “ It takes years to build a facility but it takes just hours to dismantle it.” “ Look at their ( Theatre) condition,” he said.

The Operation theatres, adjacent to each other, present a junkyard look. There are no operation tables inside the Theatres but the table lights are hanging in a damaged condition. They have started to corrode. Also some damaged furniture lies scattered on the ground.

A senior doctor said if Government was serious, the theatres could have been made functional years ago when the institute witnessed abnormally high rate of deaths. He was referring to over 500 deaths which took place at the hospital in 2012 owing to alleged mismanagement and negligence on part of the then administration headed by Dr Javaid Choudhary.

“ Where else will you find a Pediatric Hospital, which caters to the child population of over 20 lakh, without an Operation Theatre?” the doctor asked. As per the Census- 2011 Kashmir’s children population is more than 20 lakh including the population of over 10 lakh children in the age group of 0- 6.

“ In absence of the facility ( theatres) we are forced to shift patients to SMHS and SKIMS. Sometimes it proves fatal for the patient owing to loss of time in shifting them,” the doctor said.

The hospital also doesn’t have any pediatric surgeon or pediatric anesthetician in absence of a pediatric operation theatre. “ You are talking about Theatre, we were never provided with a surgeon or anesthetician. Only a Theatre can’t solve our problems.

We need staff, back up support and equipment to start the facility. But who will address these issues. Government is unmoved for years now,” said another senior doctor.

An official claimed that the administration had recently moved a proposal to convert the Gynecological Operation Theatre into pediatric Theatre. The hospital only operates the gynecological Operation Theatre. But he said residents of Sonwar, where the hospital is located, opposed the move following which the proposal was shelved. “ Non availability of staff and equipment was also an issue,” he said.

Asked if the administration was so keen to start the facility, why are the existing operation Theatres being converted into Laboratory and Blood Bank, he said it was risky to shift the facilities back in the ground floor owing to seepage and other problems there, post 2014 September flood.

“ The ground floor has almost become unsafe after floods,” he said. The Laboratory and Blood Bank were originally housed in the ground floor but are presently being operated from Ward No 4.

Sources said the shifting of critical infants and newborns to other hospitals for surgeries was always a major concern. “ The ambulances which ferry the patients are not fitted with the life support system. The problem becomes more severe in case a neonate is to be operated because in other hospital they don’t have the life support system readily available and there are no specialized doctors for pediatric critical care, post surgery of neonates,” said the sources.

They said the situation become challenging also since those newly operated neonates and infants can’t be immediately brought back to children hospital for specialized care. “ All these situations sometime develop into major problem. The doctors do their best to provide required treatment to the patients but the system fails them. At times a child dies in transit,” the sources said.

Doctors at the SMHS and SKIMS said non- availability of the Operation Theatre at GB Pant hospital was putting extra load on these institutions which always remains overburdened with the patients’ rush. “ The Pediatric Surgery and Pediatrics need to be under one roof according to the set protocol,” said a doctor at SMHS. A senior official at the hospital said he was not authorized to comment on the situation. “ You better talk to Medical Superintendent,” he said.

The in- charge Medical Superintendent didn’t respond to repeated calls from us.