Poor patients have to face mental distort when they failed to find incubator urgently needed to save lives for their premature and underweight babies at nursery of Gynaecology Ward of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) as many of the incubators have been out of order for last many years, learned Business Recorder on Saturday.
Sources said that five incubators out of total eight incubators in the nursery of Gynecology Ward of JPMC dysfunctional due to which patients have to get their premature babies admitted in private hospitals. However, the hospital management has yet to get them repaired for the benefit of patients
Sources said that many children died due to this because their poor attendants could not afford the incubator facility in private hospitals. The rate of per day incubator facility in private hospitals is much high which is beyond the reach of a poor patient.
The fee of a ventilator for a day at Aga Khan and Liaquat National Hospitals is Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for the day. This fee at other private hospitals is, however, low to some extent which is also beyond the reach of the poor people. More than 50 deliveries are handled by the Gynaecology Wards No 8 and 9 of the JPMC every day and many underweight and premature babies urgently need incubators to save their lives.
The baffled parents are then referred to private hospitals where they are charged thousands of rupees per day for incubator service. Sources said out of two air-condition machines of the nursery of JPMC are out of order for long. Moreover, out of some 10 ceiling fans five are out of order. It is said that the budget of the nursery is meagre and could not meet the repair expenses.
Officials at JPMC claimed that nursery was set up with the help of philanthropists. He said more incubators could be installed if donations provided to the nursery. Pakistan Medical Association's former general secretary and central finance secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad said that the population of Karachi is over 20 million, where there was only one big hospital for children while there was acute shortage of incubators and ventilators at other hospitals.
Dr Qaisar Sajjad said that there was need to establish hospitals like NICH in eight different towns of the city and these hospitals should be ensured with the sufficient facility of incubators and ventilators. On the other hand, theft of medicines at JPMC has become a lucrative source of extra income for corrupt hospital staff, while poor patients are at the receiving end, as they have to either purchase drugs from private medical stores or simply discontinue their treatment. In this regard when Deputy Director JPMC Dr Seemin Jamil contacted she could not be reached despite repeated attempts.