The death of three newborn babies at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital on Monday night has failed to wake up the administration out of its slumber regarding paediatrics even two days later.
Adding insult to injury was health minister Ramdhani Singh’s insensitive comment on Wednesday. “Mauten to bahut hoti rehti hain par oxygen ke kami ke wajah se maut hui hai ki nahi, iske baare mein mujhe koi jankari nahi hai. Aspatal prashashan ke taraf se is bare mein mujhe koi jankari nahi di gayi hai (Several deaths occur but I am not aware of whether the deaths of the three babies have been caused owing to unavailability of oxygen or not. The hospital administration has not informed me on the issue),” said Singh.
The comment reflected Singh’s ignorance about the affairs related to the department he heads.
In June, when reporters asked Singh what measures his department had taken to contain encephalitis, Singh appeared to be clueless. He had replied: “Encephalitis kya hai (what is encephalitis)?”
Encephalitis claims several lives every year in the state.
When The Telegraph tried to talk to Singh later on Wednesday evening, his personal secretary said he was busy in a meeting and was not in a position to take the call.
According to sources, Singh later realised the seriousness of the matter and called a meeting with senior officials of the NMCH administration, including superintendent Dr Santosh Kumar, to get the details of the incident.
Dr Kumar confirmed that the health minister had convened a meeting. “The meeting was conducted between 2pm and 3pm. The minister sought details of what actually occurred. The claim that the three children admitted at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Nicu) died because of unavailability of oxygen is wrong. Our initial investigation suggests that the babies were very ill,” he said.
“One of the nurses on duty that night had informed a junior doctor that some problem had developed in the oxygen pipeline at the Nicu but we do not know how serious it was,” added a source.
Dr A.K. Thakur, head, paediatrics department, claimed that all three babies were in a critical condition.
