India
138 infants died in 83 days in Tripura government hospital
By IANS
Apr 14, 2006, 22:30

In a damning report, a team of health experts in Tripura has not only confirmed the deaths of 138 infants in 83 days at a government hospital but also pointed to the glaring inadequacies in its functioning.

According to the report, submitted to the state government, of the 138 deaths between Jan 1 and March 24 at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital here, 29 infants died in birth asphyxia. Pneumonia, low birth weight, septicaemia, malaria, gastro enteritis, encephalitis and meningitis as well as some undiagnosed diseases were the causes of the other deaths.

Though the number of doctors is sufficient in the paediatric department, their services are not properly utilised and the labour room doctor is overburdened, the five-page report stated.

It also pointed to the acute shortage of nursing staff in the paediatric department of the 100-year-old hospital and said delivery and resuscitation of newborn babies was mainly being done by midwives. "This practice is undesirable," the report said.

Besides, vital monitors and essential equipment were also lacking.

The three-member team, headed by the Agartala Government Medical College's P. Nishikanta Singh, found records of investigations of only 15 cases out of the 138 deaths. Of these, more than 50 percent deaths are in the neonatal period.

The team observed that early detection of foetal distress and proper neonatal resuscitation could have prevented many of the deaths caused by birth asphyxia and that facilities for investigation were not utilised nor expert opinion sought in most cases.

About 800 children, till the age of 12, are admitted to the referral hospital every month and the average mortality rate is about 15 a month.

"Most of the children who died were infants in the age group of zero to 12 months," Tripura's Health Director Satya Ranjan Debbarma said Friday.

"The facilities at the hospital are the best among the 19 main government hospitals in Tripura although there is room for improvement," he admitted.

"We have already taken appropriate steps on the basis of the recommendations of the expert team to decrease the incidence of deaths," Debbarma said.

The infant mortality rate in the state in 2003 was 32 against the national average of 60.

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