KURNOOL: The death of large number of babies and mothers in government hospitals in Kurnool district is the result of administrative and operational mismanagement including the absence of proper labour rooms, sufficient nursing staff as well as untrained midwives.
Quite often, babies are delivered in government hospitals under unhygienic and often risky conditions. In 2012-13, as many as 72 mothers and 1,164 infants died in hospitals. In 2013-14, the numbers were 65 mothers and 1,024 infants.
As many as 56 mothers and 1,070 infants died in 2014-15 while 2015-16 saw 60 mothers and 952 infants losing their lives. For 2016-17, till date, 50 mothers and 681 infants have died.
The district has 48 primary healthcare centres, 18 community healthcare centres, four regional hospitals, one teaching hospital and one district hospital. In addition to this, there are scores of private hospitals. None of these hospitals apparently have labour rooms built according to standards prescribed by National Health Mission.
As per records with the District Medical Health Officer, on an average abo-ut 85,000 deliveries are performed in Government Hospitals annually. The Government General Hospital at Kurnool sees about 800 deliveries per month.
Elsewhere in the district, Nandyal hospital recorded 5,500 deliveries last year.
Adoni Hospital also recorded almost a similar number of deliveries last year. In Adoni division, deliveries are done at the house without any paraphernalia. A gynaecologist said that “they are used to it”.
When contacted, DMHO Meenakshi Mahadevan said that the labour wards in government hospitals need to be improved. She said that the existing wards are equipped with all the surgical requirements to perform in hygienic condition.
She said that labour rooms in every delivery point need to be standardised for delivering high quality services during childbirth. Steps were being taken to make delivery points with high case load with stress on standardisation.
She said that the space and resources do not permit construction of new units, but wherever some additional space is available for the labor room in the premises, we are making arrangements to shift to larger space to meet specifications as per these guidelines.
