Two, three or at times even more infants cramped in a single incubator is not an uncommon sight at government hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's capital city.

According to doctors practising in Peshawar, the provision of proper medical care to newborn babies has become progressively difficult due to a shortage of medical facilities, staff, and beds.

Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the largest government hospital in the province, only has 38 beds and 25 incubators in its nursery wards. The average number of patients admitted to the ward every day is 60.

A doctor treats multiple babies accommodated on a single bed. — Photo by author

The hospital staff says the nursery section was equipped in accordance with the LRH's gynaecology ward's requirements. However, due to the growing number of referrals, the number of patients admitted is now higher than the ward's capacity.

Since most of the patients brought are in critical condition and cannot be turned away, the staff has to accommodate three to five babies on one bed, a doctor explained.

The situation at the Khyber Teaching Hospital's nursery ward is worse. The hospital only has 35 beds and 11 incubators, while the average number of newborn babies hospitalised every day is 60 to 65. In addition, the hospital also lacks trained staff, which increases the risks to infants' lives.

"The nursery ward is extremely overburdened due to the high number of referral cases," Doctor Hamid Bangash of the Khyber Teaching Hospital told DawnNewsTV.

"As the number of patients is double the number of beds in the ward, there is no choice but to accommodate two to three patients on one bed."

He admitted that the practice is against the standards set by the World Health Organisation, according to which there should be a separate bed and incubator for each newborn in order to prevent the transmission of viruses and infectious diseases.

Due to a shortage of beds, it common to accommodate more than one infant on the same bed. — Photo by author

"But there is no other way to deal with the inflow of patients," he explained.

He also cited management issues faced by the staff in dealing with a huge number of patients.

A paediatrician said that due to the inflow of patients, doctors often have to discharge old patients who have not yet fully recovered in order to accommodate the new ones who are often brought in in critical condition.

They do tell the parents of the newborns being discharged to bring them back in case of an emergency however, he said.

Hayatabad Medical Complex faces more or less the same challenges. At least 40 infants are admitted to the hospital on a daily basis, while the nursery ward only has 30 beds and 11 incubators.

The hospital staff says they often have to shift occupants from the nursery ward to the paediatric ward when the number of patients is high.

The huge number of referral babies increases the burden on the staff and the ward as well.

Private hospitals and inaccessibility

Though there are two to three nurseries in private hospitals in Peshawar, they charge Rs7,000 a day which puts them out of reach for many patients.

The treatment costs are also significantly higher, due to which middle-class and lower-middle-class families are unable to afford them.

Three children fitted in one incubator, increasing the risk of transmission of infection diseases. — Photo by author

Accessibility to medical care is another reason which makes KP a risky province to be born in. There are only four functioning infant and neonatal nursery units in the province, three of which are in Peshawar and one in Abbottabad.

In the rest of the province, there are no proper healthcare units for infants. People from all over the province, as well as Fata, have to bring their children to Peshawar for medical treatment, further increasing the burden on already overcrowded hospitals.

Doctors blame the government for failing to take appropriate measures to ensure that proper medical care for infants is accessible throughout the province.

They say there is an urgent need to build healthcare units in remote districts of the province so that residents are able to get access medical care in their area.

Additional Director General Health, Tahir Bashir, however, maintains that the outgoing government has already bought the necessary equipment and the results will be visible in coming years.

Speaking to Dawn, he said that the government had also hired more medical staff. He further mentioned that the government was also working on new trends of specialised treatment and soon those would be implemented in the hospitals.