76 Child Deaths Reported in 2 months in UP’s Bahraich Hospital

Parents said due to a shortage of beds in the district hospital, doctors are referring them to private hospitals.

File image of a health centre in UP’s Bahraich. Image used for representation. 

(Photo courtesy: Youtube)

News regarding the deaths of at least 76 children in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district hospital, in the short span of two months, has left the district in a state of distress.

According to Bahraich’s chief medical officer, Dr AK Pandey, the reason behind this high rate of child deaths is a varying range of diseases, The Times of India reported.

“Four main problems, including birth asphyxia, meningitis, acute encephalitis syndrome and septicaemia caused over 90 percent of these deaths,” Pandey told TOI on Tuesday, 18 September.

He added that the growing number of sick children had led to a shortage of beds in the hospital.

The Chief Minister’s Office, in a statement, said that to accommodate the unwell children, the hospital, which originally held 30 beds in the pediatric ward, added 20 more beds, TOI reported.

Some of these beds have been placed in the corridor to extend treatment to the unwell children. Efforts are on to add more beds. 

The Chief Minister’s Office said 

Worried parents alleged that due to the shortage of beds, the hospital’s doctors were referring them to private hospitals and health centres in Lucknow and Gorakhpur.

“There was dearth of medicines, oxygen supply apparatus and health staff," a local resident, Ashish, told TOI.

However, the Chief Minister’s Office denied these allegations, claiming that the medical authorities were doing their best to tackle the situation.

(With inputs from The Times of India)