Srinagar, Apr 4: The 100- bedded Maternity Hospital of SKIMS Soura could have been the answer to hundreds of high-risk pregnancies requiring multi-specialty care in Kashmir. However, the facility is far from completion as the work on it suffering a jolt due to paucity of funds.
Over the years, the number of women who need consultation and treatment from the number of departments during their pregnancies and deliveries has increased. The increase in non-communicable diseases, gestational diabetes, hypertension has pressed the need to have a specialty Maternity Center. SKIMS Soura, being a premier hospital with all the super specialties and a maternity hospital could have been the answer to this requirement. However, its Maternity Hospital, popularly known as the Trust Hospital, continues to be 20 bedded, despite years of ‘work’ on a new block and expansion.
Many regimes in the past have vocalised promises of upgrading this Maternity facility that caters to nearby areas currently and is bereft of any advanced Gynecological and Obstetrics services. Limited capacity in the labour room and limited beds has defeated the purpose of having a Maternity Hospital associated with an advanced Institute such as SKIMS. A senior doctor at the Institute said that the facility was “as good as a small maternity home in peripheries”. Not just the wards and Labour rooms, the OPD of the hospital is an old dilapidated structure that in no way is convenient for pregnant women.
The reason that the previous administrations of SKIMS Soura have been held responsible for the delay in its completion is the paucity of funds. As per an official of SKIMS, the project cost has quadrupled over the years and no funds were allocated specially for this hospital. “SKIMS Soura has very limited funds and this project was not on priority,” he said. The construction of this hospital was started in 2008 with J&K PCC as the executing agency.
Director SKIMS Soura, Prof Parvaiz A Koul said the hospital was “functioning alright” but agreed that a larger hospital would have improved the scenario. “We are expecting that the 100 bedded Maternity Hospital will be completed this year,” he said. He said the hospital was near completion and would be completed in the current financial year. “Funds have been an issue in the past,” he said while refusing to elaborate further.