Cuttack: The Odisha government today suspended six staff members of the state-run Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics, where over 50 infants have died in the last 10 days.
The action has come on suggestions of a scathing report by a Union Health Ministry team, which visited the facility last week.
The suspended staff included two staff nurses, three medical attendants and a sweeper, hospital authorities said.
While the nurses have been placed under suspension, the government has decided to file FIRs against the attendants and the sweeper.
Officials also said that two other nurses were transferred from the Sishu Bhawan on administrative grounds.
A committee headed by the state DMET (Director Medical Education and Training) was constituted by the state government on August 25 on the infant deaths, was yet to submit its report.
Following intervention of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Health Minister J P Nadda had sent a team of four experts headed by a joint secretary to Sishu Bhawan.
The team had visited the hospital on August 28 and 29 and suggested improvement in the level of competence and preparedness by the hospital to deal with critical cases.
Besides finding shortage of doctors and paramedics, including infrastructure, the team also suggested for strict monitoring of sick children, round-the-clock facilities for clinical investigations inside Sishu Bhawan and regular strict infection surveillance system to check the spurt in infant deaths.