Srinagar:
The horror of infant deaths continues in Srinagar with two more babies having lost their lives in the last 24 hours at the government-run GB Pant Hospital in the city. With this, the toll in the hospital has risen to 46 in less than three weeks.
The deaths that occurred on Friday night sparked protests in the city today for the second consecutive day. Angry relatives of the babies staged a protest outside the hospital premises and blocked the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway by placing the bodies of the infants on the road. The traffic police diverted all vehicles, coming into or leaving the city.
The unrest comes a day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah assured of "visible improvement" within the next 10 days in the state of affairs at the state's lone paediatric hospital. The state government had also transferred the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Javed Chaudhury, after a preliminary probe found that the hospital allegedly lacked manpower and equipment and also blamed the management.
(Read)"One can think of such situations in a village, but if something like this is happening in the state, then we should all feel ashamed of it...Heath is a state subject and we should be more careful...We can only provide help but to look into the matters in depth is the work of the state. I will go to see the situation personally tomorrow...We have been providing them the beds and the money from the past 2 years...the state government needs to look at it," Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
The state government, meanwhile, has replaced Mr Chaudhury with Muneer Ahmad Masoodi as the new Medical Superintendent of the hospital.
"With a view to improving the health delivery system, the government today engaged Dr Muneer Ahmad Masoodi, a retired professor of the Government Medical College in Srinagar as the Medical Superintendent of G B Pant Hospital with immediate effect," an official spokesman said.
The government also ordered the transfer of several officials of the health and medical department.
Over 350 infants have died in the hospital since January 1 this year - 85 in April, 105 in March, 66 in February and 68 in January this year.