After the deaths of more than 290 children due to administrative lapses and abysmal healthcare facilities in Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College Hospital, the UP government has now woken up to the reality of another mass deaths of children in the state’s Farrukhabad district.
According to reports, 49 children have died at the Ram Manohar Lohia district hospital in one month alone. Faced with utter embarrassment, the state’s BJP government has now transferred the Farrukhabad district magistrate as well as the chief medical officer and the chief medical superintendent of the district hospital, reported news agency PTI.
The chief spokesperson in Lucknow confirmed that of the 49 deaths, 30 children died in neo-natal ICU and 19 during delivery between 20 July and 21 August.
“A high-level team will be sent to Farrukhabad to probe the the deaths and its technical aspects will also be taken care of. Taking note of the incident, the DM, the CMO and the CMS (womens hospital) have been removed,” he was quoted by the news agency.
The spokesperson further added that there were 468 deliveries in the women’s wing of the hospital during the period. Of these, 19 were stillbirths.
An FIR against the CMO and the CMS was filed at a city police station on Sunday night.
City Magistrate Jaynendra Kumar Jain and SDM Ajit Kumar Singh said that the probe found that 30 deaths were due to lack of oxygen. They also mentioned in their report that the CMO and the CMS did not cooperate and did not give a correct report.
“During the period, 30 children died mostly due to perinatal asphyxia (a condition in which a child does not breathe normally just before, during, or after birth). During probe, the parents informed that there was delay in providing oxygen and medicine due to which the children died due to lack of adequate supply of oxygen,” Jain said in the report.
This comes after the state government was widely condemned for the children’s ‘massacre’ due to lack of oxygen supply in Gorakhpur. The state government was also accused of paying more attention on carrying out divisive political agenda than sorting out the mess in the health sector.