Four more infants die in Sargodha, toll hits 12

SARGODHA: Even as investigators were still scrambling for clues into eight infant deaths at a Sargodha hospital a day earlier, four more babies died at DHQ nursery on Thursday taking the death toll to 12 in 48 hours.

The inquiry committee formed by the government arrived on Wednesday evening and left early Thursday, after interviewing doctors, nurses and other staff members. In their initial investigation, the team declared that the hospital management is not ‘culpable’.

According to sources, the inquiry team pointed out that the medical instruments were also in a good condition. The team also checked the medical files of all the infants.

The children allegedly died due to insufficient oxygen supply and the negligence of doctors. Earlier on November 19, eight babies had died in the same hospital, with parents holding the hospital’s administration responsible for the tragedy. The executive district officer (EDO) health had, however, denied the accusations and said the hospital has a central oxygen system. According to him, there was also no deficiency of the gas in any ward.

The hospital roster put down the infant deaths to “pneumonia, infection, underweight, unsafe delivery and premature birth”.  Currently, there are two medical officers posted in the medical ward along with 12 trainee doctors — working in three shifts of eight hours each. In addition to this, eight senior doctors are deployed at the nursery and they all visit in the morning.

However, the government has been long glossing over the fact that there are still 51 posts for doctors and 30 posts for nurses lying vacant in the DHQ hospital.

The medical superintendent of DHQ Hospital Sargodha, Dr Iqbal Sami, said that a summary regarding the empty post has already been sent to Punjab chief minister, requesting him to fill the vacancies on an emergency basis. Since there is no nursery at Maula Bakhsh Hospital Sargodha, the DHQ hospital has to bear an extra load of patients as well, he added.

The hospital’s nursery ward is the only infant care facility in the whole Sargodha division and children from Khushab, Bhakkar and Mianwali are also brought there for treatment. No private hospital in Sargodha offers nursery facility for the newborns.

A representative of the hospital, Dr Sikandar Warraich, said that more than 3,500 children were brought to the DHQ Hospital during the last six months — of which 370 lost their lives.

The hospital management believes things can get better if the nursery ward is shifted to a new building. However, currently there is no emergency oxygen supply in the newly built structure. They informed that the installation of an oxygen supply plant is in the pipeline and it will be imported from Italy next month.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2014.