Srinagar, July 18: Attendants at Kashmir’s largest maternity hospital, Lal Ded Hospital, have levelled serious allegations against its doctors and hospital administration, claiming that the care and treatment provided in the labour room fall far short of expectations.
They said that despite improvements in maternity services, the hospital continues to remain overburdened which was also a reason for compromised maternity care services.
On Tuesday, Saima Bano (name changed) a patient from Bandipora developed labour pain at her home after which she was taken to sub district hospital Bandipora. However, doctors feared complications and referred her to LD hospital for treatment the same day.
“When she was admitted at LD, she was left unattended for four hours in labour despite being a case of risky pregnancy,” said Ahmad, her attendant.
He said the patient was already suffering from heart ailment and was suffering from severe pain and despite that she was left unattended. The attendant alleged that many expecting women who are asked to wait at the labour room face the same situations.
However, she later gave birth to a baby girl after normal delivery on Wednesday but the experiences of the family and the patients were not satisfactory.
“Today, there are gynaecologists across hospitals but only those patients are referred who need it but the patients are left to suffer in labor room at LD. Doctors should play their part and heal patients who are already in distress,” he said.
On the other hand, many patients who come to LD hospital for deliveries move to private hospitals in Srinagar just because of the alleged mismanagement in labour room. The poor patients do not bear the huge expenses to go to private hospitals.
On Monday late evening, Sakeema Bano, a pregnant woman from Budgam district was admitted to LD. However, the next morning her attendants took her to a private hospital where she delivered a baby boy at 9 a.m.
“The doctors keep patients waiting for many days and they do not play the role they are supposed to play. The wait in pain becomes a problem for many patients. Patients are alone in the labor room and they need extra care in such a situation which they don’t get,” said her attendant.
Both the families alleged that the doctors in LD’s labor room were not categorising patients genuinely saying that high risk patients should be given utmost priority.
The attendants also said that despite tight CCTV surveillance to curb corrupt practices the hospital’s security staff continues to ask for money before and after the deliveries.
In 2019, the health and medical education department had issued Standard Operating Protocol (SoP) for instituting answerability in healthcare institutes in case of referrals but these are not followed in hospitals and there is no end to unnecessary referrals.
Medical Superintendent, Lal Ded Hospital, Dr Muzaffar Jan agreed that they get non genuine referrals from peripheries which could have been managed at rural hospitals due to which patients suffer at the largest maternity hospital.
“Our hospital should get high risk cases only but we get patients who can deliver normally at any peripheral hospital,” he said. The MS said on Wednesday the maternity hospital received 28 referrals of which only six were genuine while the rest were non-genuine.
A senior gynaecologist at GMC Srinagar said the LD hospital bears huge burden of patients across the valley and population has also increased.
“Over the years there has been an increase in institutional deliveries. Now pregnant women have comorbidities like they have diabetes, hypertension and other NCDs,” she said.
The hospital also has poor bed strength which is a reason why pregnant women often share beds causing the inconveniences. However, as per officials there is an under construction building at LD which is expected to decongest the huge burden.
“We get unprecedented referrals and we prioritize high risk patients first. We get emergency cases that require C-sections. Why we get these patients is that district hospitals do not have proper ICU facilities,” the gynaecologist said.
Talking about normal deliveries being conducted in the hospital, she said 40-50 percent of pregnant women deliver their babies following normal deliveries.
On the other hand, a senior official of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir said the directorate is working to ensure the minimum possible referrals to tertiary care hospitals.
“Specialist doctors have been posted in the sub-district hospitals. Infrastructure and machinery has also improved. However, referrals can’t be stopped altogether. The referral is in the interest of patient care,” he said.
