Infant deaths: Nashik hospital to get additional funds, incubators

Mumbai, Sep 9: The Civil Hospital in Nashik, Maharashtra, where 55 infants died in the last one month, would soon get more funds and incubators, Maharashtra health minister Dr Deepak Sawant said on Saturday.

Sawant today visited the hospital and reviewed the facilities available there. He also sanctioned Rs 21 crore for woman and child section of the hospital."The hospital will get five additional incubators," Sawant added.

Hospital authorities had on Friday said that it has 18 incubators.

"Newly-born babies come to the Civil Hospital from places as far as 200 km away. Every year some 28,000 children are admitted to this hospital. Sometimes the figure touches 50,000," he said.

Almost half of the babies admitted to the hospital are born outside, and such babies are more likely to develop bacterial infections, the minister said.

Arrival of "migrant citizens" in the city in April and May also leads to rise in cases of bacterial infection overall, he said.

Fifty-five infants died in the special newborn care unit of the hospital in August, authorities had said on Friday.

Since April, 187 infants have died in the unit, civil surgeon Suresh Jagdale had told PTI.

"Most of these deaths occurred because the infants were brought from private hospitals at a stage where there was little chance of recovery. The deaths were also due to reasons like premature birth and lung weakness," he had said, ruling out possibility of medical negligence.

PTI