J K Lon hospital (file photo)

KOTA/JAIPUR: At least nine more infants have died at Kota’s J K Lon Hospital in the last two days, taking the toll to 100 in December 2019.

The number of infant deaths in the same hospital in December 2018 was 77, the hospital authorities confirmed on Wednesday.

“At least nine newborns and infants have died in J K Lon Hospital on December 30 and 31. The number of kids’ deaths in December has reached 100,” the hospital superintendent, Dr Suresh Dulara, said on Wednesday.

He added, “On December 30, four kids died and on December 31 five kids died. All of them died mainly due to low birth weight and birth weight hypothesis.”

The Rajasthan government on Tuesday ordered hospitals attached to medical colleges to check the functional status of all medical equipment and send reports.

Last week, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and health minister Raghu Sharma had claimed that that most of the children who died were referred to the hospital in critical condition from nearby districts, including regions of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh .

The hospital superintendent claimed on Wednesday that the number of infant deaths at the hospital in 2019 was lower than 2018 and the lowest in last six years. “At least 1,005 kids died in 2018 in the hospital, while 963 died in 2019,” said Dulara.

The number of infant deaths at J K Lon Hospital has witnessed a constant decline since 2014 when 1,198 deaths were recorded, which was 7.6% of the 15,719 admitted, according to data from Kota district collector Om Kasera and the hospital superintendent. The percentage declined to 7.2% in 2015, 6.6% in 2016, 5.9% in 2017, 6.1% in 2018 and 5.7 %, the lowest, in 2019, the hospital superintendent said.

Following the controversy over the high number of infant deaths in December 2019 alone, the hospital has put in efforts for the upgradation and maintenance of its medical equipment, as well as reconstruction of paediatric units and deputations to make up the insufficiency of medical and nursing staff in the hospital.

The principal of Medical College Kota, Dr Vijay Sardana, said, “The units of the paediatric department have been subdivided into three units. The HOD’s office will be in J K Lon Hospital and the non-teaching unit will be working on the New Medical College Hospital premises.”

He added, “A work order for installation of a central oxygen supply line in the hospital has been issued and work would be completed within 15 days. Proposals for new OPD and emergency wards for the paediatric and gynecology departments have been incorporated in the proposed OPD block under the Smart City Project.”

Taking serious note of TOI’s report on December 30 headlined “Over 50% of gadgets in Kota hospital where kids died defunct”, the medical education department wrote to the principals and controllers of all medical colleges saying: “An immediate stock-taking of all the equipment should be carried out to make sure that all the gadgets are in use and their annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) are in place.”

“For equipment whose AMCs have not been done, the process should be immediately initiated after stock-taking,” wrote Vaibhav Galriya, principal secretary, medical education.

While pointing out that some equipment might be lying in hospital stores after purchase, he directed that a physical verification of the stores be done to ensure that such machines are identified and put to use immediately.

Galriya has also pulled up doctors while pointing out that hospitals are not properly maintaining IPD bed tickets. “It has also been observed in some hospitals that IPD bed tickets are not being properly maintained. History and clinical notes of the patients are incomplete. All departments and treating doctors must be instructed to make sure that proper recording of patients’ medical information is done after their admission to the IPD,” he said in the circular.

Also, proper counselling of patients and their attendants should be done. “They should be briefed regarding the disease and health of the patients,” he wrote.

To prevent infection from spreading, he pointed out that microbiological surveillance of operation theatres (OTs) and ICUs must be regularly done at least once a month and samples taken from all relevant portions of OTs and ICUs.

The hospitals attached to medical colleges will also ensure that bacteriological reports of the samples should detail the bacteria for which the culture is positive or negative and take curative action. Standard infection control practices, including hand hygiene, should be ensured in all OTs, ICUs, labour and procedure rooms, said Galriya’s directions to all medical colleges.

