SMGS paediatrics department awaits shifting since 2008 ‘EQUIPMENT GATHERS RUST’

Greater Kashmir

SYED AMJAD SHAH

Jammu, June 22: Two years after the building for separate paediatrics department was completed in Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital here, the authorities have yet to shift the department, causing the newly procured state-of-the-art equipment to rust.

Officials say the shortage of required manpower was the only hurdle for starting the department in the new structure, which was completed in 2008 during the tenure of then chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Hundreds of children are being treated per day at SMGS, the only hospital in Jammu to have full fledged paediatrics department.
“The new building stands completed in all respect, but the department could not be shifted because of the lack of required staff,” official sources said adding the new building had the capacity of nearly 200 beds, besides separate OPD and would be equipped with latest diagnostic equipments.
The equipments, already procured is gathering dust, because the management is yet to arrange the skilled hands and doctors to make the department functional, sources said.
“Some of the machines have rusted since they are not in use,” sources alleged.
The authorities were contemplating to shift some of the paramedics and doctors from other departments before shifting the paediatrics department, sources said adding, however the shortage of staff in other department was another problem confronting the management.
The 550-bedded hospital, on an average, has 800 to 1,000 indoor patients on any given day. So far this year, it has witnessed 155 deaths of infants, neonates and children in the paediatrics department while three deaths of women have been reported in the gynaecology and obstetrics department