Infants Dying, Bitten By Rats: Kashmir’s Hospitals Are in Crisis

The death of a newborn after he was nibbled by rats highlights the sordid state of the healthcare sector in Kashmir.

A young girl lies in a hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir. (Photo: Reuters)

The shocking death of a newborn who became fodder for hungry rodents at a hospital on Saturday is not the first incident of callous official negligence reported from the government-run hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir.

The baby boy was nibbled by rats at Kishtwar district hospital on 15 October, two days after his birth, with his father, Ghulam Hassan, a resident of the remote Chhatru village of Chenab valley, accusing the hospital administration of “murdering” his son.

“He laid there motionless and rats were still nibbling at him,” said the baby’s father. (Photo Courtesy: Jehangir Ali)

They had shifted them (wife and son) to maternity ward. When I visited the hospital on Saturday, I saw his face bleeding. He laid there motionless and rats were still nibbling at him.

Hassan told <b>The Quint</b> over phone

The case has shaken the healthcare department, with officials ordering a probe to ascertain the facts.

The CMO will carry out the probe and if any official is found guilty, he or she will be held accountable.

Bali Bhagat, J&amp;K’s Health Minister

Patterns of Impunity

The ghastly incident is an ugly reminder of the crippling state of healthcare in Jammu and Kashmir where the state-hospitals often face charges of negligence, more so in the field of paediatric healthcare.

These images show the sordid state of the surroundings of a hospital in Shopian, Kashmir. (Photo: The Quint)

In the summer of 2012, GB Panth hospital, Kashmir's only paediatric care hospital, reported a staggering 500 neonatal and infant deaths in the first five months, prompting the officials to order an inquiry.

The probe report found a majority of medical records –1330 of 2219 cases – missing from the hospital with just 35 percent of infants admitted between January and May discharged hale and hearty, while the rest were found to have perished due to negligence.

While the probe officer had blamed the hospital administration and the sub-standard drugs prescribed at the hospital for the deaths, accountability was never fixed. Dr Javed Chaudhary, who headed the hospital during that time, was moved to a different hospital to quell public rage.

Also Read: How Citizens Are Saving The District Hospital in Shopian

Crippled Infrastructure

Political turmoil in Kashmir keeps the hospitals overwhelmed by different types of patients throughout the year. But the turmoil has made social sectors like education and healthcare the last priority for the policymakers whose focus remains on security in the sensitive state.

Besides the shortage of maternity and paediatric care facilities in Kashmir, even the existing hospitals lack infrastructure and manpower.

At GB Panth hospital, doctors are made to work in 36-hour shifts while two or even three patients are asked to share a bed.

A hospital ward damaged by floods in Srinagar in Kashmir in 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

“All the state-run hospitals in Kashmir face shortage of manpower as well as infrastructure. We don't have enough ICU units to treat road accident and conflict-related trauma emergencies. Its a sad state of affairs but it is true,” a senior doctor at SMHS hospital said, wishing anonymity.

A cursory walk in the SMHS hospital, one of the only two tertiary care facilities in Kashmir, is a telling sign of the muck that has infested healthcare in J&K. Cats and rats spring up in congested corridors and wards as patients are ferried on trollies from one end of the hospital to another.

A deathly stink pervades the air which stays with you long after you are gone.

Missing Accountability

As a first step towards changing the course of healthcare sector, the authorities should learn to listen to the victims.

Despite spending millions, lack of a proper grievance redressal system in the hospitals institutionalises the inefficiencies and incompetencies of doctors as well as the administration, thereby putting thousands of human lives at risk.

The emergency room of a hospital in Srinagar after the floods in 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

A system of accountability with rewards for performers will not only help in streamlining healthcare but it will also inculcate a sense of duty among the black sheep in the medical fraternity whose negligence and apathy comes at the cost of precious human lives.

The incident in Kishtwar should not be allowed to go down as a small footnote in the troubled state of healthcare in J&K, littered as it is with hundreds of such ghastly incidents.

Instead, it should become a starting point for change which can prevent two-day old infants from falling prey to rodents on prowl in hospitals.

God knows that my son died because of the negligence of doctors. Had they taken proper care of him, he would have been alive today. If his killers go unpunished here, they will not be spared in His durbar.

Hassan, the two-day-old infant’s father