Seven infants have died in the Malda Medical College and Hospital over the past 24 hours, hospital authorities said on Saturday.
“All the children who died were of low birth weight. They were referred to the hospital from other heath centres. Most of them died of asphyxiation,” Jyotish Chandra Das, deputy superintendent of hospital and medical college, told journalists.
Dr. Das denied that the deaths had anything to do with medical negligence and said that round-the-clock facility for sick newborn care units ( SNCU) was available in the hospital.
“We have informed the higher-ups in the State Health Department,” Dr Das said, adding that leave of all doctors stood cancelled.
The hospital authorities said that most of the children were born at home (non-institutional delivery) and brought to the health facility in a critical condition after being referred by some health centres in the district. Dr. Das said all the children who died in the hospital were less than a month old.
In June, the hospital reported death of at least eight children over 48 hours. The hospital was upgraded from a district hospital to medical college in 2011 and caters to people not only in Malda, but also in Uttar Dinajpur Dakshin Dinjapur and parts of Murshidabad district along with certain areas of adjoining Bihar and Jharkhand. According to experts, malnutrition of mothers and early marriage were among causes of low birth weight in children and infant mortality. The West Bengal government claims that the infant mortality rate (IMR) in the State has dropped and the last estimates point out that the IMR rate is 31 (31 infants die for every 1,000 new births registered).