SARGODHA: At least four more infants died in the nursery of the District Headquarters (DHQ) Teaching Hospital, taking the death toll of newborns to 12 on Thursday, allegedly due to absence of facilities, including unavailability of oxygen and incubators shortage, and negligence of the doctors.

The recent deaths happened in the presence of the chief minister’s inspection team (CMIT) which was there to look into the cause of newborns who had died on Wednesday.

The nursery of the DHQ hospital has 25 beds and five incubators but it has 50 newborns admitted while 20 of them are still in a critical condition and need incubators which can only be provided to only five babies.

Four more babies die in presence of CM’s inspection team

The Punjab government has reportedly issued directions to the authorities to provide 20 incubators to the hospital at the earliest.

An inspection team, constituted by the chief minister to investigate the death of eight babies who had died on Wednesday, reached the hospital to look into the mismanagement and lack of facilities that had resulted in the deaths where it had to witness the deaths of four more children. There are unconfirmed reports that two more newborns also died late on Thursday, talking the death toll for the day to six.

The inspection team included the deputy inspector general police (investigation) who, through police sources, also collected information to make a report to be submitted to the CM. The team recorded the statements of the staff and members of the bereaved families and checked the medicine stock and available resources.

There are vacancies of 51 specialist doctors and 30 nurses in the hospital. It requires 121 medical officers but at present only 21 medical officers are available.

Most of the specialist doctors have their own hospitals while others are working with private hospitals and they attract patients to the private hospitals for more earning. The specialists are casually seen in the hospital and they generally leave the hospital for teaching in the medical college, however, they are always found present in private hospitals.

It is reliably learnt the first infant died at 9pm on Wednesday after which the parents of the other newborns kept on asking the administration to call senior doctors but in vein. Some students of the Sargodha Medical College were present in the hospital for treatment of babies but they failed to save their lives due to lack of knowledge and experience.

Dr Iqbal Sami , Medical Superintendent of the DHQ Teaching Hospital, said the babies could not survive due to immature birth while four of them had been brought from private hospitals in a critical condition. He denied the allegations that the infants had lost their life due to negligence of the staff, insufficient arrangements or lack of oxygen.

He said a fact-finding committee, comprising Dr Arshad Rauf, Dr Shahid Manzoor and Rabiya Hashim, had been constituted and stern action would be taken against those found negligent.

Pakistan Medical Association Sargodha President Dr Sikander Warraich also refuted the charges of negligence of doctors or staff, saying four doctors were on duty in the nursery during the night shift and catered to the needs of all the babies.

The district coordination officer (DCO) said that out of eight children who had died on Wednesday six were born prematurely and were in critical condition upon their arrival in the DHQ hospital.

An insider, claiming anonymity, told Dawn that at least 20 babies with symptoms of sinus problems were brought to the DHQ hospital on Wednesday of whom eight expired as the hospital management failed to make proper arrangements of oxygen in the ward and the staff were seen shifting oxygen cylinder from one ward to another while the specialist doctor, despite calls, did not bother to come to the ward.

The Government Maula Bakhsh Hospital is the only gynecology hospital in the city for women of Sargodha and adjoining districts, including Mianwali, Khushab and Mandi Bahauddin, located at some distance from the DHQ hospital, due to which most of the children expire while being shifted to the DHQ hospital.

Though eight children had expired but the hospital sources kept the incident secret until the DCO, in a press release, admitted the deaths.

Mumtaz Kahilon, district president Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, said the ruling party parliamentarians were directly responsible for the deaths in the hospital as they had got an inefficient MS of their choice deputed there.

He said the Supreme Court must take suo motu notice of the deaths which happened due to absence of any health minister in the province.

Meanwhile, Adviser to CM on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique visited the DHQ hospital and examined various wards, including the nursery.

Talking to media, he said the health facilities in Sargodha were going to be upgraded and the CM had called a special meeting on Friday to take decision regarding provision of more facilities in the hospital. He said there should be nurseries in the private hospitals to share the burden of the DHQ hospital. He said stern action would be taken against the administration of the hospital if the negligence in the sad incident was proved.

Published in Dawn, November 21th, 2014