In a shameful incident mocking the tall claims of the government towards bettering the public delivery system, a father in the remote Gandoh Sub Division of Doda District had to travel five kilometres to reach the nearby hospital at Gandoh Sub Division, but unfortunately had to return back with his dead body.
As per the details available to The Chenab Times, a 2 month old minor girl died allegedly due to the non availability of the doctors at Sub District Hospital Gandoh.
According to the victim’s parents, they walked about 5 km from their home in Panchayat Dhadkie to the Gundow hospital in the morning and there was no doctor available to check their minor daughter. They added that after a long delay, BMO Gandoh turned up and attended the child’s parents.
“Your child has an oxygen problem and we do not have an oxygen machine in the hospital,” they said, quoting what BMO had told them.
Israr ul Haq Choudhary, the father of the victim child, said that if the doctors had arrived on time, his child might have survived. The father of the child claimed that his baby died allegedly due to the negligence of the doctors at SDH Gundow as they did not pay attention to his seriously ill child in the hospital. He further added that the doctor at the hospital preferred to keep himself in front of the gas furnace to keep himself warm from a prevailing cold while his child was left to die.
After they lost the child due to the doctor’s negligence, they returned to the village with his dead body by walking another 5 kilometres — a difficult journey for them.
The area is presently under heavy snow cover as a result of which the vehicles didn’t play on the road due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.
Asif Iqbal Naik is a senior journalist and Senior Advisor at The Chenab Times