The hue and cry over the tragedy at the Baba Raghav Das hospital in Gorakhpur, where 32 children died recently, refuse to die down. Recent figures show that over 70 deaths have taken place since August 7.
An inquiries have been ordered and the government suspended Dr Kafeel Khan, who is in charge of the encephalitis ward. But there is not much let up in the situation and it is unlikely to improve, unless some very strict measures are taken up by the government.
It has been a story of negligence. Now, Health Minister Siddarth Nath Singh has also admitted that the hospital is plagued by issues of corruption.
Two examples are enough to corroborate this. When Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath first visited the hospital to take a stock of the situation, on August 9, the authorities failed to inform him about previous deaths and the crisis in the supply of oxygen.
Though the patients tried to meet the chief minister, they were heckled by hospital staff who made sure that the CM did not get a true picture of the chaotic condition in the hospital. In fact, there are reports of the attendants complaining of being slapped and abused by the doctors on duty.
Another BRD hospital has sufficient funds and the government had further released Rs 2 crore to the hospital funds. The oxygen supplier’s dues of almost Rs 69 lakhs were pending with the hospital, but despite having enough funds, the hospital authorities did not make the payment to the firm.
Why did this happen? It is an open secret that the funds were stopped as the kickback on arrears were not paid.
Many parents of deceased children with whom this correspondent met, complained of depleting supply of oxygen and rude behaviour by the doctors on duty.
Once the deaths started taking place, the parents were told to take the bodies out through the rear gate of the hospital instead of the main gate, so that they could escape the glare of news reporters.
The government has constituted an inquiry committee under Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar and a final picture will emerge when this committee submits its report by coming Saturday.
The district administration which conducted its preliminary inquiry and submitted its report to the government held responsible former principal Dr R.K Sharma, HOD of anesthesia department Dr Satish Kumar, acting principal Dr Ram Kumar, CMS (chief medical superintendent) Dr Rama Shanker Shukla, HOD of pediatrics department Dr Mahima Mittal and Dr Kafeel for this tragedy.
The accounts department of the medical college is also under the scanner for not releasing payment. The axe may soon fall on some officials of that department too.
The government is waiting for the chief secretary’s medical report which is likely to come in few days after it has made up its mind to take stern action against the guilty.
