PNN & Agencies
Cuttack, August 24: With five fresh deaths reported Monday, the infant death toll in the state-owned Sardar Ballav Bhai Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics here, popularly known as Sihsu Bhawan, reached 23.
Twenty-three children, including newborns, have died in the last four days at the hospital following which Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has sought a report from the hospital authorities.
Niranjan Monahty, superintendent of the medical, said 23 deaths of newborns and other children were reported since Friday and five of them were recorded during 24 hours ending Monday afternoon.
The hospital authorities had ordered an internal inquiry, the report of which has been submitted to the government, Mohanty said.
The state government too ordered the Cuttack district chief medical officer to probe the incident.
The district administration also conducted an administrative inquiry into the allegations of parents over “misbehaviour” by the doctors and nurses of the hospital, officials said.
Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognisance of the case, the OHRC issued notices to the state government and the hospital authorities asking them to file details on it within a week.
Parents of the infants who died Monday have attributed the deaths to negligence by doctors, nurses and other hospital staff.
Meanwhile, a four-member committee probing two deaths Thursday and Friday has given a clean chit to the doctors and nurses treating the children. DMET professor Prakash Chandra Maohapatra visited the facility and collected the probe report.
The probe panel had recorded the statements of 16 nurses and six doctors of the hospital. On the other hand, additional collector Bibhuti Bhushan Das also submitted a probe report to the collector at 9 pm Monday. The health minister has called a high level meeting Tuesday, sources said.
Health and family welfare minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak asked the chief district medical officer of Cuttack district headquarters hospital to inquire into the deaths and take inputs from nurses and parents before submitting the report to the health department.
Officials of the directorate of medical education and training will analyse the report of the committee and then submit the report to us after which we will take a decision,” director, health services Chitta Ranjan Nayak said.
