At least 36 newborns die in a MP hospital due to inadequate facilities

At least 36 infants died in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district over the month of August, according to news reports.

But Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Rajesh Pandey denied any knowledge of the incident, which otherwise had been confirmed by a doctor at the new-born ward.

“As many as 195 infants were admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) in August and 36 of them died of reasons ranging from insufficient weight, ailments to premature delivery,” Dr VD Sonwani from the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) was quoted as saying by News 18.

The news website reported that inadequate facilities at the hospital was the reason behind the deaths.

Hospital sources quoted by news agency IANS informed that none of the four ventilators that the hospital had installed could be made to work since the staff hadn’t been trained to operate them.

A news report also noted that now deceased Member of Parliament (MP), Dalpat Singh Paraste, had to be airlifted from the district to Gurgaon due to inadequate hospital facilities.

The incident comes on the back of recent instances of children deaths in at least two districts in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Gorakhpur and Farrukhabad.

The Yogi Adityanath-BJP government in the state has been in the firing line of the medical fraternity after conveniently shifting the blame on doctors, several of who have FIRs lodged against them.