53 infants dead in 11 days at Odisha's Sishu Bhavan

The shocking death of 53 infants in the last 11 days at Sishu Bhavan in Cuttack have raised questions about poor infrastructure and shortage of doctors in major hospitals in Odisha.

The Sardar Vallabhbhai Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics or Sishu Bhawan is the biggest paediatrics hospital in eastern India. The hospital attends more than 400 patients on an average daily. The hospital is also facing an acute shortage of paramedics. There are only 20 doctors against the sanctioned strength of 48 doctors to manage the hospital.

Odisha Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Naik on Sunday night made a surprise visit to 'Sishu Bhawan', shortly after five more crib deaths were reported from the hospital.

Upset with the turn of events, angry parents of the children, including those under treatment, accosted Naik for narrating their woes before visiting media persons.

However, as the minister left the spot soon, the parents blamed Naik of not listening to their grievances and leaving in a huff.

When contacted the hospital official refused to comment on the guardians' complaint.

The official further stated that seven senior residents from SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack had joined on Sunday to help the paediatric staff here to cope with the situation.

Earlier on Saturday, a seven member central team led by Health Ministry additional secretary Arun Panda and specialist doctors had also visited Sishu Bhavan to assess the situation.

"The whole idea of bringing a central team is to help the state government and to strengthen the entire service delivery system. If required we will send additional doctors here," Panda said.

The Odisha state government has also formed a technical committee to probe the incident and the report is expected next week.

According to a data, the death rate at the ICU of the hospital has increased by 25.84 percent in 2014-15 against 16.17 percent in 2013-14. A total of 564 children out of the 2,183 admitted at Sishu Bhawan ICU had died in 2014-15 while 326 deaths were reported against 2,016 in 2013-14.

Odisha stands above the national average in terms of maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate.

Opposition slams Naveen Patnaik government

Accusing the BJD government of failing to take steps to check rising infant deaths at Sishu Bhawan, the Bharatiya Janata Party has said that it would stage protest across the state on September 2 to highlight the crumbling health services in Odisha.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the "pathetic situation" at Sishu Bhavan, senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra alleged the CM neither bothered to visit the premier medical facility nor did he initiate prompt action to check infant deaths.

"Unabated deaths of children at the Sishu Bhavan has triggered panic among people across the state, but the chief minister seems to be indifferent. He is yet to wake up despite widespread hue and cry," Mohapatra told media persons.

Though the "Sishu Bhawan" has been suffering from severe manpower shortage, fragile infrastructure and absence of necessary equipment and laboratory facilities, the state government had failed to take timely action and allowed the situation to slip out of control, he alleged.

"All these prove complete inefficiency and callousness on the part of the state government," the BJP leader said, adding deaths of babies could have been checked had the government responded to the situation properly by opening a control room and taking emergency measures.

"The CAG has also slammed the state government over fragile health services and gross inadequacies in hospitals and medical colleges in the state," he said.

Another hospital, similar horror story

The MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, which on an average attends to 50 newborns every day, is a case in point.

The Sick Newborn Care Unit at the hospital is being run without a ventilator and an Intensive Care Unity, hospital officials said.

The hospital also does not have other necessary equipments like bubble CPAP, ABG, portable X-ray machine and Central Oxygen Supply, though it is the only referral hospital in southern Odisha, they said.

While mothers are seen lying outside the SNCU, babies are huddled into one bed to keep them warm.

"We don't have adequate beds for mothers. There are only 24 beds at the SNCU," Superintendent of the Medical College A K Behera said.

"We receive numerous referral cases. We have requested the National Health Mission to increase the number of beds in the unit," he said.

The SNCU needs 10 pulse oximeters, four baby laryngoscopes, 10 infusion pumps, four bumble CPAP machines besides four ventilators," said Narendra Nath Soren, Professor in the Pediatric department.

"Shortage of doctors and trained nurses is the other problem. The unit is being managed by the doctors of the Pediatric department and house surgeons. We had put up an advertisement for a pediatric specialist, but received no application," said Behera.

He said the government had sanctioned four ventilators for the unit. Those would be installed from the medical user's fund. The building that would house the 8-bed ICU had been completed. It would start functioning once the equipments were installed, he said.

At MKCG, 216 babies died between April and July this year. A total of 726 deaths were reported between April 2014 and March this year, a hospital official said.

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