Immense workload on maternity care creating crisis like situation
Srinagar: The extent of workload is immense for the existing manpower in health department, particularly when it comes to the maternity care.
As per monthly work done statement available on the website of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK), particularly the data pertaining to the maternity care, the number of deliveries carried out in peripheries, except Srinagar, is 3335 for the month of November, 2017.
The peripheries include 11 districts: Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Kargil, Kupwara, Pulwama, Leh and Shopian, excluding Srinagar.
District wise breakup suggests that the highest number of deliveries—including normal and Lower Segment Caesarean Section (LSCS)—were carried out in district Anantnag which is 944 for the month of November. Next in line, in the number of deliveries carried out, is district Kupwara, where the number of deliveries carried out is 558 for the same period.
Notably, as per sources, there is a total number of 77 sanctioned posts for Consultant Gynaecologists in Kashmir Division, in which only 52 are currently in position and 25 posts are still lying vacant.
Little operations on the data reveal that on an average, in the month of November, every district performed 303 (approx) deliveries, which includes normal ones and those of LSCS per day, which is way beyond than normal workload.
Further breaking down the data reveals—in case of LSCS: total number of such surgeries, carried out in the peripheries for the month of November is 1258 (except Srinagar). The average suggests that every district carried out 42 (approx) LSCS per day.
In case of normal deliveries, data suggests: total number of such procedures carried out in peripheries—again except Srinagar—is 2077 for the month of November. The average, in this case suggests that every district carried out 69 (approx) normal deliveries per day.
The figures further suggest that the highest number of LSCS carried out for the month of November was 353 for district Anantnag, and for this number the average comes out to be 12 ( approx) LSCSs per day, given the availability of manpower in the peripheries.
The second in line, in case of LSCS is district Baramulla, where the number is 337 for the month of November, and where the average suggests that 12 (approx) LSCS procedures were performed per day during the month of November.
The data available in case of work done and in case of availability of specialized manpower points towards a direction which narrates a dark ordeal of state’s healthcare system, not in terms of functioning, but in terms of paucity of manpower.
As per experts, work done statement suggests how the system is functioning, given the fact that there is paucity of manpower everywhere, “the work done is tremendous, that too under the conditions which are limiting,” said a medico.
“If 25 posts are vacant and if these seats are filled, it is still not going to cater to the rush of patients in peripheries,” sources said, adding “there is a need to fill the vacant posts, and create additional ones, equivalent to the colossal needs of peripheral population.
KV Correspondent
