Hospital in Adilabad turns deathbed for newborns

ADILABAD:The body of a newborn baby found recently on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) hospital created flutter for quite sometime. The baby's body was ripped apart by a stray dog which spotted the baby covered in a red cloth. This horrifying death of a newborn jolted everyone but was soon forgotten.Though such incidents raise many questions about the hospital management, shortage of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff at RIMS answer some of our questions about the precarious situation. Lack of proper facilities and staff and negligence of hospital management has claimed lives of 213 children (between 0 to 12 years of age) from January to December 10, 2011.Most deaths are reported from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The staff crunch has impacted the lives of kids so much that there are no doctors to attend to newborns.Though the unit has only 10 beds, the hospital management is trying to accommodate 20 to 30 children in it. Adding to the woes, there are only two nurses in the NICU who have to take care of about 20 to 30 babies and there are only five incubators.With parents from all over Adilabad bringing their children to the government hospital because of the free services offered here, the hospital management, on the other hand, is trying to cash in by admitting more children when there are not enough facilities or beds to accommodate them.Sources say that most deaths are caused due to incubators as services provided at RIMS are free where as patients who approach private clinics or hospitals have to shell out `200 per hour for using the incubator.Incubators or 'open warmers' are used for the care of prematurely born babies and helps maintain their body temperature.According to hospital superintendent Suresh Chandra, parents of the babies who die due to respiratory problems leave the bodies on hospital premises which lead to such heartrending deaths. He clarifies that it is not the negligence of hospital staff but that of parents.According to hospital sources, NICU treats referred newborn babies suffering from medical problems."At any given time, there are about 20 to 30 babies in the unit and it is difficult for the nurses to take care of all the babies when there is staff crunch and the unit is only 10bedded one," they say.