With broken heart and tears rolling down from eyes I am once again writing about the lone maternity care hospital of my home district which always hits the headlines of newspapers and news channels, but not for good reasons. Every other day a tragic story comes from this so called maternity care hospital and no one bothers. It has become the death trap for pregnant women and the genocide centre for the new born. The arrogant behaviour of the medical staff at MCH is known to all who so ever visits the hospital. It is the hospital were paramedical staff take hefty amount in the name of “Chai” it is the hospital where a entry pass of Rs. 10 is cut by gatekeeper into two or three pieces and this way three persons can make an entry in the wards so on and so forth. This all was done behind the curtains but thanks to social media which give voice to voice less people and exposed the health institution to a large extent. Another tragedy is that the hospital is situated in the congested Sherbagh locality with no traffic management except a narrow and busy lane where an ambulance can hardly pass. Not only this but the building of the hospital is small and unsafe. Building is without proper ventilation and heating system.
From last many years administration failed to shift the hospital from Sherbagh because of nexus between the hospital administration and the shopkeepers outside who are dependent on this hospital for their bread and butter.
The recent tragedy of a death of pregnant lady along with her twins shook the very foundations of the humanity and exposed the rot in the system in a big way. But unfortunately this death was wrapped in the coffin of Coronavirus and no action was taken against the medical staff of the institution. Since then they deny the treatment to the expectant mothers and treat them as untouchables under the tag of Covid -19 and red zone which a big tragedy. From last few days every day videos are shared on social media by the people about the denial of treatment and irresponsibility, arrogance and hard attitude of the doctors and paramedical staff but all goes unheard and administration is silent over the issue.
Another pregnant lady lost her life in the same hospital after being referred from SDH Seer Hamdan. Adding salt to their wounds they were denied ambulance amid lockdown and video of dead body of this woman on hospital trolley got viral on social media. Soon after this the Deputy Commissioner Anantnag tweeted and blamed the relatives that they took away body without legal formalities. But how is it possible that amid the covid-19 surveillance relatives came out from the hospital with a dead body? Isn’t it a question mark on Covid-19 management in the hospital? It’s pretty clear that the women was not from red zone and died due to medical negligence.
Another tragedy is that every time the hospital administration blames the lack of infrastructure and equipments and drops curtain on mismanagement in hospital administration. One wonders that every year crores of rupees are kept for development of health care especially maternity health but why this hospital is still lacking facilities is a big question. Why MCH Anantnag mostly refer patients to L.D Hospital Srinagar? Why Deputy Commissioner Anantnag does not spare funds for this hospital during district board meetings? Why action was not taken against those who were involved in previous deaths at MCH? These are some questions answer for which people of district seek.
Now if the district administration is really concerned about the health care system of district then they should take concrete steps to overhaul the health sector of Anantnag and priority should be given to the maternity and child care and secondly steps should be taken to shift the hospital from congested Sherbagh area as soon as possible. This way we will save precious lives.
DR.MASOON AHMAD BEIG
GDC, Shopian
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