Srinagar, Apr 19: The Paediatric Surgery Department of GMC Srinagar would be shifted to Children Hospital Bemina in two weeks to expand and improve the services, officials said on Friday.
Regarding this matter, the GMC Srinagar administration conducted a meeting on Friday, attended by the relevant officers and officials of the medical college, to discuss the shifting.
The meeting held a detailed discussion on the shifting of the department and other measures that will help improve its functioning and for the larger interest of patient care.
A senior official said that they have decided to shift the machinery and systems which will take some time and they are expecting to make the department functional within two weeks.
“Once we shift Paediatric Surgery Department to Children Hospital at Bemina, as desired and ordered by administration, we will be able to expand and improve the services making the department the largest paediatric surgery facility in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
He also said the Children Hospital Bemina has the facility to conduct neonatal surgeries which are not being done regularly at Super Speciality Hospital, Shireen Bagh.
“We have been referring most of these cases to the department of Paediatric Surgery, SKIMS Soura,” he said, adding they are thankful to SKIMS for their support.
Officials said the Children Hospital Bemina has made functional a state-of-the-art theatre facility which is the first such infrastructure facility in entire Jammu and Kashmir.
The same would be inaugurated after the Model Code of Conduct is over. The lone children hospital in the valley is also planning to start other departments in a phased manner.
The GMC authorities are looking forward to the shifting process to be completed within two weeks. Given the current status of the department, doctors are optimistic about reaching national and international standards in the near future.
The officials said that by the end of May it will be a fully functional department. They said there are manpower and logistic issues which would be taken care of on priority. “Whatever the deficiencies are, we will try to find a solution,” they said.
Interestingly, doctors say the paediatric surgery department is becoming a mark of attraction for paediatric surgeons outside Jammu and Kashmir. Growing a centre of excellence in some important areas of the specialty, the department is scaling a new high.
Notably, the department has been performing around 750 major operations every year for the past three years. The paediatric surgical procedures performed by paediatric surgeons posted in General Surgery, would amount to more than a thousand in GMC Srinagar.
The department conducted its first observership program in Jan this year and five paediatric surgeons have already registered for the next observership program for June this year.
