At least 24 people, including 12 newborns died at a state-run hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded in the last 24 hours due to alleged shortage of medicines and hospital staff.
"Six males and six female babies died in the last 24 hours. Twelve adults also died due to various ailments, mostly snake bites. We faced some difficulty since various staff were being transferred," said S. Wakode, the dean of Nanded's Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital.
The 12 adults were suffering from various ailments mostly snake bites, he said.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance has attacked the government, demanding the resignation of Health Minister Tanaji Sawant.
Wakode said many patients came from far-off places and the hospital faced issues of procuring the right medicines in time amid budgeting constraints.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan said another 70 patients, referred from other private hospitals in the districts, are reported to be serious.
“I spoke with the hospital Dean who said there was shortage of nursing and medical staffers, certain equipment are not working and certain departments are not operational for various reasons. This is a very grave issue,” Chavan said.
Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule strongly condemned the mass deaths, saying: “This triple-engine government is responsible for all the 24 innocent persons' deaths."
A similar incident in which 18 deaths were reported in a day had been reported in a Thane-based government hospital in August.
