Government in knots over Kurnool deaths

KURNOOL: After 11 infants died in two days at the Kurnool government general hospital, the State government on Friday woke up to the tragedy but gave a clean chit to doctors. While the investigation team led by Director of Medical Education Dr Sampath Kumar claimed there was no prima facie evidence of negligence, it couldn’t adequately explain the reason for the deaths.The average infant mortality rate in the hospital is 35% was all that it said. The team further claimed there were adequate number of ventilators, incubators and drugs in the hospital.Ministers, S Vijayarama Raju and TG Venkatesh, who visited the hospital, inspected the paediatric ward and conferred with the doctors and came out saying the doctors were not at fault. In the same breath, they promised to provide 10 ventilators and 10 incubators, almost contradicting the enquiry panel’s claim that there are enough of them.If infant deaths are the order of the day at the hospital, on Friday, no surprising number of deaths were reported.According to the doctors, on any given day, 100 children are treated.But on account of “weather” the number has spiked to 200 and hence, the deaths!