A 20-day-old baby’s death in the State-run Vani Vilas Hospital on Wednesday morning brought Health Minister U.T. Khader and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Rudrappa Patil there on Thursday to warn the hospital staff of action if any patient was denied timely treatment.
After visiting the paediatric wards, labour ward and the neonatal intensive care unit, Mr. Patil told The Hindu : “There is a lot of scope for improvement at the hospital. There is no shortage of infrastructure but the staff needs to utilise the services properly. We will develop the hospital in a systematic way.”
The baby, suffering from severe meningitis and internal haemorrhage and referred by a Chickballapur hospital, was brought by her parents Susheela and Venkatesh to Vani Vilas on Wednesday morning.
Forced to admit
“As we have only three ventilators and with all the three being put to use, we asked the parents to take the baby to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health. As they refused, we were forced to admit the baby today. However, the baby died on Thursday,” a hospital staff said.
When Mr. Rudrappa Patil was asked about shortage of ventilators, he said tenders for procuring ventilators had been floated but there was some problem in the procurement process, which would be attended to shortly.
Meanwhile sources in the hospital said that the ministers had given them a six-month deadline to improve the situation. The hospital will be under the scanner and authorities would be conduct inspections, the source said.
