Missing facilities: Five newborns die in Sukkur

Denying parents’ claims, Civil hospital staff confirms one death

SUKKUR: As many as five newborns reportedly died during the last 48 hours due to shortage of oxygen and ineptness of staff at Civil Hospital, Sukkur, according to parents of the deceased children.

Barkat Ali, father of one of the newborns, said he brought his seven-day-old boy to the hospital two days ago but neither doctors nor paramedics paid due attention, which led to his son’s death Friday morning. Ali blamed the doctors and paramedics of criminal negligence.

“Five newborns, including my baby boy, have expired in the last 48 hours due to mismanagement,” said Ali while talking to the media on Friday along with parents of other children said to have died at the hospital.

During a visit to the hospital on Friday evening, no doctors were found available in the nursery or gynaecology ward. Rather, two to three nurses were attending to the babies and their mothers.

Meanwhile, one of the nurses claimed only one baby passed away on Friday morning, refusing to share the identities of the victim. The other nurses also refused to comment.

“Only one newborn died. One baby boy was brought from Salehpat on Thursday night in a very critical condition and he expired the next morning,” Civil hospital medical superintendent Dr Abu Bakr Shaikh confirmed to The Express Tribune.

“A woman gave birth to twin boys, of which one, being underweight, died,” said Shaikh. The hospital has four incubators in the nursery and all of them are functional, he claimed, adding that there was no shortage of oxygen, as is being alleged by some attendants.

Hospital’s sorry state

When the hospital was recently declared a teaching hospital of Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College, residents of Sukkur and its surrounding areas were hopeful the move would benefit them. However, nothing has changed for the healthcare deprived citizens.

Heavy generators that were recently installed to provide uninterrupted power in case of load-shedding are being run regularly. However, the electricity supply is directed towards the residences of doctors while patients continue to depend on hand-fans alone. Even the air conditioners, installed for the patients in different wards, are seldom seen running.

Despite having a large number of staff on its payroll and an increase in the yearly grant given to the hospital from Rs60 million to Rs220 million, the hygiene conditions in the hospital remain negligent. While some new equipment, such as a CT scanner, has been added to the hospital, patients continue to complain about the indifferent attitude of hospital staff, along with the unavailability of medicines.

A few days ago, over 20 people were bitten by a rabid dog in Shikarpur and there was no anti-rabies vaccine available at the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.