MUZAFFARABAD, March 9: The newborns and other ailing children admitted in or likely to visit the paediatric unit (PU) of the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) may not get the proper care as the services being offered there after the October 2005 earthquake from different quarters are grinding to a halt, it has been learnt.

Sources told Dawn that the United Nations Fund for Children (Unicef) had entered into a partnership with the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) in February 2006 for the provision of specialised care in five health facilities in the Muzaffarabad district, including the AIMS.

The agreement, initially for six months, was extended till January last year on the request of the AJK government as well as evaluation of the support by the agency’s field staff. After completion of the agreement with the PPA, the medical services with the AJK health department were provided to the child patients from February 2007 to February 2008.

However, the provision of human resource support by the Unicef to four health facilities was stopped on February 29, including 50 per cent reduction for the AIMS and the remaining 50 per cent was to be stopped by March 31 in accordance with the “advice” of the AJK health secretariat, the sources said.

According to the sources under the Unicef support programme, six doctors - four male and two female -, four nurses, four dispensers/vaccinators and a data entry operator were working in the PU from April 2006 and eight of them were relieved on February 29, whereas the rest were slated to quit on March 31.

Apart from the HR support by the UN agency, six senior paediatricians of the AJK health department had also been serving at the AIMS during the same period, but recently two of them had been transferred to other health facilities. Of the remaining two, one had gone on deputation and the other was to retire from service after two weeks, which meant the PU would be left at the mercy of only two doctors, the sources said.

“A unit which was being looked after by 12 doctors and 11 nurses, dispensers and vaccinators will now be left at the mercy of only two doctors and three (official) nurses. So one can imagine the standard of services as well as frustration of the parents who expect day and night services,” remarked a staffer, requesting anonymity.

The PU at the AIMS comprises five sections - the Paeds Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with six beds, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with 10 beds, General Ward with 20 beds, Therapeutic Feeding Centre (TFC) with 10 beds and Isolation Ward with four beds.

Though the number of beds was much less than the required and mostly the staff had to accommodate up to four children in one bed but that, according to the sources, was not as worrying as the looming shortage of staff.