Tuesday, November 29, 2011

NCPCR irked at overcrowding and lack of infrastructure in Malda District Hospital Paediatric & Neonatal wards

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was irked by the presence of at least four to five adult attendants to the child patients, besides the lack of proper requisite facilities for the infant patients during a recent visit to Malda District Hospital where at least 30 crib deaths had occurred in October and November,2011.

The team visited the children's ward, the neonatal ward, the maternity ward and even the labour room. It was disappointed with the cleanliness of the wards, including the labour room. However, the neonatal ward was comparatively better kept, although not to the desired levels.

A five member team, led by NCPCR member Vinod Kumar Tikoo, visited the Malda Medical College and District Hospital on Thursday to inquire into the causes leading to neonatal deaths in the recent past.

"Considering the fact that the hospital is being upgradated to a Medical College, a sudden influx may have caused the enhanced admission intake from the neighbouring districts as well as some cases from the bordering state of Bihar and Jharkhand too, as the next nearest referral Hospital in the area is only in North Bengal, which is quite a distance away from Malda and also reaching there means an additional burden on the pocket for the marginalised population apart from the risk involved in the time taken for carrying the infants and pregnant mothers with critical illness.

"For this kind of influx, the hospital did not have the requisite infrastructure for treatment of the newborns. There is no micro anaesthiser or ventilator machine. Despite the fact that the chief minister in the recent past provided additional warmers in the hospital, the hygiene conditions are not proper,'' Tikoo told reporters on Thursday after taking rounds of the different wards of the hospital.

The Commission team observed that the hospital wards was overflowing with a huge number of relatives of patients present apart from the mother of the infant patient . This increased not only the vulnerability of a newborn to a host of infections leading to certain fatalities, but also acted as an impediment for the doctors and hospital staff to provide effective and proper treatment to the infants as well as neonatals and requested the parents/attendants not to overcrowd the ward.

This was acceded to by them and they vacated the wards, leaving just the mother to be with the infant. The team also directed the hospital authority to immediately provide security to regulate the visitor’s entry into the wards which was seen as a free for all and blocked even the passage for the doctors and nurses.

The delegation also interacted with the parents and relatives of ailing children admitted at the hospital and gave a patient hearing to their problems which included their inability to buy some medicines and go for some clinical tests at unaffordable costs.

The apex child rights body also urged the hospital authorities to make the parents of the infants as well as the hospital staff aware of the different heath schemes available for those belonging to the marginalised sections of the society and the enabling benefits that can be availed by them.

The team insisted on maintaining sanitation in and around hospital and the use of hand sanitisers by the doctors and nurses, especially in the neonatal ward of the hospital. The child rights panel would be submitting a report to the Commission.

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