Ahmedabad: As many as 111 infants died at a civil hospital in Gujarat's Rajkot district in December last year, an official said on Sunday. Similarly, over 100 infants died in two government hospitals in Jodhpur in December last year, a report has found amid growing outrage over infant deaths in a Kota hospital.
"As per official records, 111 infants died at Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Hospital in Rajkot in December, 71 in November and 87 in October last year," the hospital's medical superintendent, Manish Mehta, told reporters.
He said the rise in infant deaths at the hospital in December was mainly due to an increase in the number of referral patients with serious ailments.
More infants with low birth weight were also among the reasons for the rise in the number of deaths, Mehta said.
"We hold monthly meetings to assess facilities available at the hospital and meet the requirements urgently," he added.
Besides, 85 infants died at a civil hospital in Ahmedabad in December, its medical superintendent G H Rathod told reporters.
"As many as 85 infants died in the month of December, 74 in November and 94 in October. The death rate has come down to around 18 per cent as compared to 2018," Rathod said, without specifying the previous numbers.
The main reasons for such deaths were premature delivery, low birth weight, as well as infection and asphyxiation in infants referred to the hospital, he said.
Reacting to the figures, state Health Minister Nitin Patel said the infant mortality rate is 30 per 1,000.
"Every year 12 lakh infants are born. Of these, 30 out of every 1,000 infants die due to malnutrition, premature delivery, or because the mothers are not able to reach the hospital in time," the minister said.
Whereas, a total of 146 children died in Umaid and MDM hospitals in Jodhpur in December, 102 deaths were reported in the Neo natal intensive care unit.
The figures of infant deaths in Jodhpur were given in a report prepared by the S N Medical College in the light of casualties in Kota's J K Lon Hospital.
Principal of the S N Medical College S S Rathore, however, said the figure is in the range of international standards of infant mortality.
A total of 47,815 children had been admitted to the hospitals in 2019 and of this 754 children died," said Rathore.
In December, 4,689 children had been admitted to the hospitals of which 3002 had been admitted to NICU and ICU and 146 of them died.
Rathore said most of the children who died were those referred from other surrounding districts in a critical condition.
The hospitals here have to bear the load of patients from entire Western Rajasthan and children were also referred from hospitals like AIIMS , said Rathore.
He said the critical care unit of the hospitals have been adjudged best in the entire state for two consecutive years and attributed it to their best practices and care.
Though Rathore denied any shortage of resources to deal with the pressure at the hospitals, there have been reports that many senior doctors have been running their own private hospitals.
Recently, notices had been served to these doctors including those, who have been running medical shops at their residences.
(PTI)