14 More Infants Die At Kota Hospital, Toll Now At 91 For December, BJP Sends Central Panel

The JK Lone Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan registered 91 infant deaths during treatment in December with 14 deaths in just last week.

Over 940 infant deaths were recorded in 2019 at the JK Lone Hospital which is the largest in the Kota-Bundi constituency.

The matter came into light when Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, who is a member of parliament from Kota, tweeted, about the 10 infants deaths on December 23 and 24. “The untimely death of 10 infants in 48 hours in my parliamentary constituency’s JK Lon Hospital, is a matter of concern. Rajasthan government should take action immediately and handle the situation sensitively,” Birla tweeted.

संसदीय क्षेत्र कोटा-बूंदी के जेकेलोन मातृ एवं शिशु चिकित्सालय एवं न्यू मेडिकल कॉलेज चिकित्सालय में पहुंचकर व्यवस्थाओं का जायजा लिया।48 घंटे में 10 नवजात शिशुओं की असमय मृत्यु दुखद व पीड़ादायक है। घटना की पुनरावृत्ति ना हो इसके लिए पर्याप्त चिकित्सक इंतजाम करने के निर्देश दिये। pic.twitter.com/04XiYV1zOm

— Om Birla (@ombirlakota) December 29, 2019

High-Level Committee

The rapid increase in deaths compelled the state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to set up a high-level committee of expert doctors and subject experts to inquire the cause of deaths of infants and submit a report at the earliest. The committee is also expected to come up with steps to avoid these deaths in future.

The three-member team comprising of Dr Amarjeet Mehta, Dr Rambabu Sharma and Dr Sunil Bhatnagar will submit the report in two days following which action will be taken, Rajasthan Medical Education Secretary Vaibhav Galariya said on Monday.

Meanwhile, a Bharatiya Janata Party has formed a Member of Parliament panel comprising of Lok Sabha MPs Jaskaur Meena, Locket Chatterjee and Bharati Pawar, and Rajya Sabha MP Kanta Kardam.

The panel will submit its report to the party working president JP Nadda within three days.

CM Criticised For Remarks

As the number of newborn deaths continues to rise, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “Deaths happen every year, happen in Jaipur too, there was nothing new about it.”

“Death of even one child is unfortunate, but there have been 1,500 – 1,400 deaths in a year in the past, this time, the figure is 900. There are daily few deaths in every hospital in the state and the country, nothing new. Action is being taken,” he added.

BJP MPs Rajendra Singh Rathore and Kalicharan Saraf called out the CM for his insensitive remarks. “Such deaths should not have occurred. Do they want to compete on the number of deaths… if they want to do so, there cannot be more unfortunate than this,” Rathore said.

Grim Reality Of Hospital

The hospital’s report on infection monitoring this year has raised some serious questions on the conditions of government hospitals.

Fourteen samples have revealed the presence of bacterial and fungal infections in the hospital which is one of the major cause of infant mortality.

Inadequate supply of oxygen to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, infection-prone wards with no regular fumigation and shoddy maintenance of vital medical equipment were found.

About 320 out of the 533 critical pieces of equipment at the hospital, including ventilators, nebulisers were found damaged.

The hospital has been directed to get available equipment at the earliest besides laying oxygen pipeline for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), availing services of nursing staff on a contractual basis, increase sampling process frequency at NICU and duty of the HoD and trained staff in the wards.

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