Cuttack, Aug. 29: A four-member team of the Union health ministry took stock of the situation at Sishu Bhavan today in the wake of a number of infant deaths here over the past few days.

Led by additional secretary of the Union health ministry Arun Panda, the team made a detailed assessment of the infrastructure deficiencies. The team will submit a report to the Centre on how to improve the facilities.

Forty-four infants have died in the past nine days at Sishu Bhavan, Odisha's sole referral paediatric health care centre.

Official sources said the team had come to review whether the deaths were natural or due to any fault in the treatment provided to them.

"We are here to assist the Odisha government and fix issues and find out whether the prescribed clinical management protocol is being followed or not," said Panda.

He said the team would specifically focus on long-term plans to reduce infant deaths.

"Usually, the death rate in any referral centre is high and we will shortly deploy a team of paediatricians to assist the authorities at Sishu Bhavan. This will be finalised after discussion with the officials of the state health department," said Panda.

The central team included senior paediatricians of Sardarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi and AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

The visit of the team follows a letter of the Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, to Union health minister J.P. Nadda following the deaths at Sishu Bhavan.

"The expert team today discussed the issue with senior doctors and others at Sishu Bhavan. The Centre has decided to allocate a substantial grant in the Union budget for the development of SCB Medical College and Hospital and Sishu Bhavan," said Pradhan.

Pradhan and several BJP leaders, led by state president K.V. Singhdeo, accompanied the central team today.

Pradhan said at present there was an urgent need to address basic problems at Sishu Bhavan, which now faces an 'image crisis' owing to infrastructure deficiencies and shortage of doctors.

Death of infants at Sishu Bhavan has also forced the district administration to monitor health care facilities at the hospital and its overall functioning.

Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra has started a grievance camp in the evening since yesterday for redressal of complaints from the patients' attendants.

"We have already issued an advisory to all the medical staff to provide timely information on the condition of the infants," said Mishra.