BHOPAL: Infants are not only dying in the District Hospital, Shahdol, but 92 infants have also died in Sagar district in the past three months. As many as 65 deaths have been reported in just November. The deaths are reported to have been the result of a lack of doctors in BMC. However, doctors attributed the cause of deaths to premature delivery and low weight of the babies.
The infant deaths in not only Shahdol, but also Sagar has put the health department on the backfoot. However, the administration has started an exercise to control the number of infant deaths.
Situation reviewed
The four doctors appointed at Shahdol District Hospital and divisional commissioner Mukesh Shukla have reviewed the situation with the doctors of Bundelkhand Medical College (BMC) to take stock of the medical facilities. Shukla has constituted a committee of doctors for death audit and a report has to be submitted in two days. Dr Abhay Tirki, professor; assistant professor (anesthesia) Dr Satyendra Uike; assistant professor (paediatric) Dr Ashish Jain; and Dr Priyanka Tiwari (gynaecology) are in the committee for preparing the report of the deaths of infants.
Divisional commissioner Shukla visited BMC and took stock of the arrangements and infrastructure in the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) and Paediatric Intensive-Care Unit (PICU) at BMC. He also took stock of X-ray machines and sonography machines.
However, instructions have been issued to increase the nursing staff and give training to the technical staff at the SNCU. Shukla has also instructed the dean, Dr RS Verma, that there should not be a shortage of medicines and other resources. The dean has also been instructed to buy equipment if there is a need for the treatment of infants at the SNCU and PICU.