(Image source from: Hindustantimes.com)

70 Children Dead In 4 Days In Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College:- The Gorakhpur’s now infamous Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, has witnessed 70 deaths of children in the last four days. Out of the 70, 15 deaths were caused due to Encephalitis, informed Principal P K Singh.

Fortunately, no deaths have been recorded as on the morning of August 31, he said. Most of the deaths are caused because malnourished children weighing less than a kilogram at birth come to the hospital. The chances of infection are high in them, and they survive for barely half to one hour, Singh said. It was found that almost five children are kept in one bed, and less warmers were provided at the hospital.

(Image Source: Kashmirmonitor)

“We can’t refuse children who are coming, but since the resources are falling short, we are keeping two to three children in one bed, but not five,” the principal answered.

“We don’t lack in the infrastructure, only the patient load has increased. We can’t increase infrastructure at once, so the workload has increased,” Singh added.

As reported by the Prinicipal, every day on an average, almost 4,000 patients come in the Out Patient Department (OPD). Meanwhile, the hospital accommodates 950 beds and 90% of those are occupied at a time.

The hospital is working according to the human resource it has, but revealed that the patient-doctor ratio of 17:1 is less than the required 10:1 ratio.

(Image Source: Asia Times)

“We keep submitting a proposal (for more human resource) to the government from time to time,” he said.

Earlier in August, due to the lack of oxygen supply, over 70 children had died in the same hospital. The hospital as well as the government had received flak over the negligence.

The oxygen supplying agency the Pushpa Sales Private Limited, filed an FIR on August 23, against nine persons including the suspended principal of BRD Medical College, Dr Rajiv Mishra and two officials.

SUPRAJA