Cuttack, Aug. 21: Death of two newborns at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Postgraduate Institute of Paediatrics, popularly known as Sishu Bhavan, has sparked off tension here today.

The families of the two babies have lodged formal complaints at Lalbagh police station accusing the staff of negligence in providing timely treatment.

Pravat Das, 37, of Athgarh complained that his four-day-old-son died at 6.45am today after the baby was shifted from the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit last night.

"My child was diagnosed with jaundice after his birth on August 17, and as advised by the doctor in Athgarh we admitted him to Sishu Bhavan. Later, he was shifted to the ICU," said the father of the deceased.

Pravat said that the medical staff shifted the baby from the ICU at 8.30pm and not a single nurse or doctor checked him thereafter.

Another newborn, who was undergoing treatment at the Sishu Bhawan's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit since August 15, also died in the early hours today.

"The newborn was admitted here with pneumonia and was bleeding from the nostrils yesterday. Later, the baby's condition deteriorated and died at 2am," said Shantilata Das, who was attending to the baby.

Shantilata said that the newborn's mother Sasmita was also undergoing treatment at the Jagatsinghpur hospital as her condition had deteriorated after she gave birth to the child.

Sources said the hospital authorities had shifted all the critically ill newborns out of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to facilitate fumigation of the unit on Thursday.

There are nine beds at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and 12 beds at Sishu Bhavan's Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

The authorities of Sishu Bhavan, however, said that all the critically ill patients admitted to the unit were shifted to the nearby ward with the support of ventilators.

Refuting the charges levelled against them, superintendent of the medical facility Niranjan Mohanty said: "There has been no negligence in providing treatment, rather both the babies were admitted here in very critical condition."

A committee has been formed to review the deaths and the head of paediatrics has been asked to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incidents.

The death of newborns has now come as a major concern as already there has been a steep rise in the death rate of those being admitted to the ICU at the premier hospital here.

Statistics revealed that death rate at the ICU has increased to 25.84 per cent in 2014-15 against 16.17 per cent in 2013-14. As many as 564 children out of the 2,183 admitted to the hospital's ICU have died in 2014-15 against 326 deaths out of 2,016 admissions in 2013-14.

The total number of deaths reported at the ICU stood at 278 against 1,820 admissions in 2012-13.