Round-the-clock paediatric emergency in Hyderabad improving child health care

Lives of dozens of children suffering from diarrhoea, typhoid, sepsis and other infectious diseases are being saved by providing them timely medical treatment at the paediatric emergency room of the Liaquat Medical Hospital Jamshoro where daily over 300 children are brought from all the districts of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions, officials said on Saturday.

“Diarrhea, typhoid and sepsis were the leading causes of child mortality in Hyderabad and adjoining districts but since establishment of the paediatric emergency at Liaquat Medical Hospital Hyderabad, child mortality at this hospital has reduced to 5 per cent from over 40 per cent”, Masoom Naqshbandi, an official of the Child Life Foundation (CLF), told The News.

The Sindh health department has outsourced several paediatric emergency rooms to the CLF in different hospitals in the province, which is running these facilities round the clock.

Officials of the CLF said they were receiving over 300 patients daily from different areas of the Hyderabad division, including those living along the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway, and different districts of Tharparkar and other districts of the Mirpurkhas division.

They added that although, OPDs were closed at around 1pm at public hospitals, the CLF paediatric emergency was the only facility providing emergency services to sick children in this region round the clock.

Naqshbandi said polluted drinking water was the major cause of diseases among children in and around Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Tharparkar, Thatta, Badin and adjoining areas, due to which outbreaks of diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and typhoid was very common there.

“In addition to water-borne diseases, vaccine preventable diseases like measles as well as vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever are also very common in these areas. Sepsis is another leading cause of sickness in children,” Naqshbandi said, adding that pneumonia among infants was another serious health challenge in the region.

According to the CLF official, incidents of dog bite were also on the rise in Hyderabad and its adjoining area. He said that as mostly children became victims of canine attacks, the CLF paediatric emergency was the most appropriate place for providing first aid and vaccination to such children.

He maintained that since the establishment of the paediatric emergency at the Liaquat Medical Hospital, people were bringing their children to them from remote areas where they were not only provided free of charge treatment facilities but also given free medicines.

“Our emergency room is linked with the main ER at the Civil Hospital Karachi where trained and qualified paediatric consultants remain available round the clock and monitor the condition of children requiring their assistance”, Naqshbandi said, adding that in case of any serious condition, children can be shifted to Karachi through ambulances.