Behrampore, Oct. 5: Nine children have died in 24 hours at Behrampore Sadar Hospital allegedly because of negligence in treatment after two paediatricians went on leave without notice.

The health department has showcaused the doctors and started a probe.

The children were between 10 days and two months old.

“Most of them died because of malnutrition,” said Murshidabad chief medical officer Subhas Mondal. “The hospital has 25 beds in the paediatric ward and 134 patients. Children from other districts are also admitted here and so there is a lot of pressure,” he added.

There are four paediatricians to treat the 134 children and two of them, Dilip Pradhan and Amiya Ghatak, have apparently gone on leave without informing their bosses.

“No leave was sanctioned to doctors during Puja but these two are absent without notice. They have been showcaused,” said hospital superintendent Bhaskar Samanta.

The first death occurred yesterday afternoon. Ganesh Mal, a month and a half old, was the ninth to die 24 hours later. The authorities said there were no deaths after that.

Ganesh was suffering from an unknown fever for the past three days. “He was hospitalised last evening and a doctor examined him only once,” his father Gobardhan, a daily labourer, said.

Gobardhan himself did no good to his son when he took him to a quack before trying out the hospital.

Senior district and health officials rushed to the hospital today.

When visiting additional district magistrate Kajal Kumar Banerjee and zilla parishad chief Purnima Das summoned the on-duty paediatrician around 5pm, it took Mallika Baral nearly an hour to arrive from her quarters, barely a kilometre away.

“We did not expect the doctor to take so long,” said Banerjee. “We have empowered the hospital superintendent to buy any medicine required from the market to combat the situation,” he added.

The hospital has set up a makeshift paediatric ward to avoid putting more than one child on a bed. Banerjee also said leave had been cancelled for all doctors and nurses as their services were required in the paediatric ward.

“There are two to three child deaths in a day on average since many of them are brought here in moribund conditions. However, nine deaths is unusual,” hospital superintendent Samanta said.

Fourteen children had died in 48 hours at BC Roy Children’s Hospital in Calcutta in September 2002. At least four of them died as oxygen cylinders had run out. Doctors said the hospital did not arrange for oxygen despite alerts.

The health minister made headlines the day after, saying there was “nothing abnormal” about it.