Distressed by large number of kids’ deaths in Srinagar’s GB Pant children hospital, Jammu and Kashmir administration, on May 16, ordered an upper-level enquiry to look into the alarming fatality rate in the hospital.

The administration selected director of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Showkat Zargar as the investigation officer and asked him to forward the report on the causes behind the children’s demise in a period of one week.

Around 358 kids lost their lives in the hospital since January this year in both newborn and pediatrics wards. The highest fatalities of 105 took place in the month of March accompanied by 85 in the month of April.

68 demises happened in the month of January and 66 in February. 34 expired in the first 12 days of May alone.

GB Pant Hospital is the only referral tertiary care pediatric hospital in the Valley where patients not only from Kashmir, but also from far flung areas of Jammu and Ladakh visit for treatment.

RS Chib, state medical education minister stated, “Most of the poor people who bring their children here do not have proper communication to reach here. Some kids who come here suffer from encephalitis and 98 to 99 % patients die. Some are born prematurely which is another reason (for death).”

The minister stated that they feel bad about even a single fatality.

“There is a need to go into further details. However medical authorities should take all measures to minimise the deaths by taking all possible measures”, he said.

Chib stated that about 62 physicians have already been deployed in the medical institution for providing treatment.

“Due to heavy rush of the patients the government is already in the process to engage more para-medicos. Plus, efforts are on to upgrade the existing equipment so that the patient care is substantially improved”, he said.