Post News Network
Rourkela, Sept 2: Even as the issue of infant deaths at Sishu Bhawan, Cuttack has not settled, another heart rendering fact has come to the light. Of the 320 new-born babies admitted to the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) including its special new-born care unit (SNCU), 42 died during April-July 2015, says an official report.
The matter came to the fore Tuesday when a medical team led by Dr Ajay Kumar Mishra, the state advisor to Unicef, Tuesday visited the hospital to take stock of the situation. The team went to the hospital and talked to RGH’s paediatrician Dr Prashant Kumar Patra to analyse the new-born deaths and to know about the other problems of the hospital.
According to Dr Dinabandhu Panda, another child specialist of the hospital, the SNCU needs 24 warmer for the new-born babies who need the facility whereas the unit has only 12 warmers. Similarly, there are four photo therapy units in the hospital which needs four paediatricians to run them. However, only two persons are available for the purpose.
On the other hand, the attendants of the SNCU patients are often seen using the toilets of the units as there is no separate arrangements for them. So, they can end up getting infected, the doctors said. Likewise, there is no facility for the mothers of the new-born babies to spend night. They too have to sleep at whatever place they find on the premises of the hospital.
When asked, Dr Panda said the cleanliness is maintained in the unit as far as practicable at the moment. The problem would be solved after the commissioning of the 100-bed Mother-Child Building, he added.
Meanwhile, the state health department has pulled up its socks to check the infant deaths across the state after Sishu Bhawan cases. The department has sought reports about infant deaths from all government hospitals having SNCUs. RGH’s chief medical officer Dr Barish Das Tuesday attended a meeting in Bhubaneswar convened by the health department.