The report that a five-day-old baby girl died at a government-run hospital at Jalandhar because the staff stopped treatment as her father could not pay Rs. 200 for using an incubator is shocking. Those responsible for this should be summarily sacked. The NRHM is pumping money in government hospitals. Can’t they utilise it to give free treatment to women and children?
A. Jesudoss,Thanjavur
It is frightening to hear that hospital staff can actually ‘kill’ by negligence. I know of hospitals which throw out their patients once their money is exhausted. I treated one such patient successfully. He was brought to me in a state of coma when I was working in a public hospital at Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.
Reports of negligence by hospitals are common in the regional media. A few years ago, children were burnt to death in incubators in a reputed hospital in Hyderabad.
Nobody should be denied medical care just because he/ she cannot pay. That was the philosophy of the 1946 Bhore committee report.
Araveeti Rama Yogaiah,Hyderabad
How traumatic it must have been for the mother! Humanity seems to have vanished from government hospitals. The Jalandhar hospital staff have done grave injustice to a newborn just because she was born in a poor family.
M. Muthiah,Coimbatore
The news of a baby dying in a hospital for want of Rs. 200 is indeed appalling. An average Indian pays much more than Rs. 200 a month for his cable TV connection. Could people in the hospital not have helped the hapless parents?
V. Venkita Raghavan,Palakkad
