Probe rules out ‘treatment lapse’ at Sishu Bhawan

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Cuttack, August 23: An internal inquiry conducted by a team of doctors on the deaths of three babies in a span of 12 hours at Sishu Bhawan Friday night has ruled out “negligence in treatment” meted out to the newborns.
 “There has been no negligence in treatment as alleged by the parents of the deceased,” said the Sishu Bhawan superintendent Prof Niranjan Mohanty quoting the reports of the inquiry committee Sunday.
Mohanty, however, added that the inquiry team is questioning the nurses and other staff on duty at that time to verify the veracity of the allegations made against them by the attendants and parents of the patients.
At least two newborns died while undergoing treatment in the ICU and another in the paediatric ward of the hospital that night triggering a protest by attendants and relatives of the patients, who allege negligence in treatment as the cause of the deaths.
Sources in the hospital said at least 21 newborns in the ICU and 300 in the paediatrics ward were undergoing treatment here Friday night and at least 40 of them, including the newborns in the ICU, were in critical condition.
“While the hospital records at least three deaths of critical patients per day on an average, the deaths of three patients on the intervening night of August 21-22 cannot be attributed to negligence in treatment,” Mohanty said adding he had verified the prescriptions, clinical reports and the modalities and management of the deceased.
It may be mentioned here that following merger of the paediatric unit of SCB Medical College and Hospital with Sishu Bhawan and the increase in inflow of patients here following introduction of 108 ambulance, the number of critical patients in Sishu Bhawan has risen steeply since last year.
While around 11,000 patients were admitted here in 2010-11, the number of patients mounted to 18,000 in 2014-15. Similarly, from only 488 deaths in 2010-11, Sishu Bhawan registered 1,114 deaths in 2014-15, thereby recording a little over three deaths every day, sources said.