When the Valley’s lone children’s hospital got a new place and a fresh building inside G B Panth hospital in 2006 it was thought that its miseries would be over and the future generations would receive good care and treatment.

Three years down the line, nothing has change in this 135 bed hospital that caters to the entire Valley’s child population. When the hospital was shifted from its old location it had a capacity of 175 beds. At the new place instead of increasing the bed strength its capacity was reduced by 50 beds.

The Intensive Care Unit and wards of the paediatric hospital are housed inside a magnificently designed building. And from outside this hospital catches attention of every person making them believe that this four storey building is a healing place. Once inside, this hospital lacks everything and craves for basic necessities.

Of the six ventilators among which one has been donated by a local philanthropist, only three are functional. Three warmers / incubators are far less than the hospital’s requirements. On an average day, two or three babies share a single bed in the hospital’s crumbled emergency ward. The intensive care unit too is overcrowded with new borns. “This is our only children hospital. Here we need 12 ventilators and 30 warmers,” said a doctor at ICU. “At times, we are unable to treat critical patients,” he said.

On record this hospital is being jointly managed by Army and the state health department. But the Army has always turned a blind eye towards it. Apart from a little equipment, the Army has done nothing for its paediatric wards. In fact, the dual control of Army and Civil administration has affected the over-all functioning of the hospital. “The dual control has ruined this hospital,” said another senior doctor. “This hospital needs an administrator with a full-fledged control.”

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