Delhi Diary: India Reacts With Horror After 60 Children Die At Hospital

By Shakir Husain Shakir Husain, Bernama’s correspondent in New Delhi shares his take from the Indian capital. NEW DELHI, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- India has reacted with horror after fragilities in the country's healthcare system were exposed following the death of more than 60 children in five days at a hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The deaths were initially blamed on a shortage of oxygen at the state-run Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur. However, the Uttar Pradesh administration flatly denied the media reports on Friday that a company stopped supplies of oxygen cylinders to the hospital over unpaid dues of about seven million rupees (US$109,000). After all, the issue of oxygen shortage wasn't mentioned to state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath when he visited the BRD Medical College two days before the child deaths became national headlines. But it emerged later that there indeed was an oxygen supply problem at the hospital and one of the suppliers had stopped deliveries recently. It is being investigated whether the deaths occurred due to oxygen shortage. "The fault is not ours. As per our agreement, credit limit cannot exceed Rs10 lakh (one million) but despite this we continued supplying oxygen till it reached about Rs70 lakh. We also bought oxygen from another firm, which denied supply without advance payment," Deepankar Sharma, a manager for the company that had stopped supplies, told the local media. Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh insisted on Saturday the children didn't die because of oxygen shortage and asked opposition parties not to "politicise" the deaths. "There was no shortage of oxygen in the hospital. For two hours, there was shortage of emergency cylinders, during which manual resuscitation procedure was carried out," the minister said. The 60 child deaths occurred between Monday and Friday. Reports citing the BRD Medical College said that 34 babies died in the neonatal intensive care unit, 12 died due to encephalitis, and the rest died due to various medical reasons. Before Adityanath became chief minister, he represented the Gorakhpur constituency in the national parliament. Media familiarity with Gorakhpur, situated 800 kilometers from Delhi, helped the issue in gaining national prominence. The pictures of many grieving mothers holding their lifeless babies were everywhere. The principal of the medical college, Rajiv Mishra, was suspended as outrage grew. "Owing to laxity, the principal of BRD Medical College has been suspended with immediate effect," Singh said. Opposition leaders blamed the deaths on negligence and mismanagement. "The suspension of the college principal and holding of a probe by district authorities has no meaning and is merely an eyewash. This matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and the report should come in 15 days," senior Congress leader and former federal health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded. Nobel Peace Prize winner and child rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi said in a tweet: "This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?" With India celebrating its Independence Day on August 15, the sense of embarrassment was acute. As the furore increased, the federal government sent its Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda to Gorakhpur to review the situation. Adityanath vowed an investigation would find out whether the deaths were "because of an oxygen shortage or due to a lack of proper treatment." "Those found guilty will not be spared," he said. Questions were raised how a hospital could not pay its bills for oxygen cylinders in a state that recently launched an ambulance service for cows. Deaths due to medical negligence are not unusual in India, but dozens of children dying at one hospital in less than a week was extraordinary. Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state with more than 200 million people, is one of the regions with poorer healthcare record. India's expertise in medical sciences and pharmaceuticals is widely acknowledged but that doesn't mean quality healthcare is easy available to average Indians. State-run hospitals often lack capacity to handle the huge demand for healthcare and many present a picture of neglect. Long waiting period for treatment, patients being turned away due to a lack of facilities, and crowded wards are some of the common complaints. Outside major cities, the state of poorly-funded medical infrastructure is worse. India's public expenditure on healthcare, estimated to be about one per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), is worryingly below the global average. The number of doctors and nurses per 1,000 of population is also much lower compared to other major economies. Better and costlier private hospitals are unaffordable for hundreds of millions. Looking at those grieving over the loss of their children in Gorakhpur, many people are asking whether they were treated with callousness because they lacked sufficient financial means. -- BERNAMA