Eight infants die in West Bengal Govt hospital

Kolkata, 29 June-2014(IANS): At least eight new-born babies have died since Friday at a government hospital in West Bengal’s Purulia district, an official said Sunday.

Eight infants die in West Bengal Govt hospital

Confirming the deaths, Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital superintendent Nilanjana Sen said many of the babies were grossly underweight.

Eight babies, all of them a few days old, have died in the last 48 hours. But this is not a news as all of them were grossly underweight and vulnerable, Sen told IANS.

More than a dozen infant deaths took place in the hospital in June last year.A hospital in West Bengal’s Purulia district, 296 km from Kolkata, reported 11 infant deaths.

Locals and relatives of the dead children, however, blamed the deaths on the poor infrastructure and lack of doctors at the Special Newborn Care Unit.A senior doctor with the hospital, who did not want to be named, admitted there was a shortage of doctors in the paediatric unit.