Kota Infant Deaths – Burning Issues

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Why in news?

Death of around 112 infants in a Kota hospital in 35 days
The J K Lon Hospital is the biggest such facility for children in the Kota division with hundreds of patients coming every day from adjacent districts such as Baran, Bundi and Jhalawar — even from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

10 of the 100 deaths in a month happened in a span of 48 hours between December 23 and 24, prompting the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government to form a committee.
The committee quickly cleared the hospital of any lapses last month.
The infant deaths recorded were mostly critical cases that were sent to the hospital from villages after the condition of the babies deteriorated.

Administrative tussle between the head of dept and superintendent
Improper maintenance of equipment (incubators)
Shortage of oxygen lines.
30 per cent shortage of nursing staff.
Anecdotal evidence has pointed to the callousness and insensitivity of the hospital staff to the concerns of the patients.

The state government has claimed that in the period 2014 to 2019, the death toll in 2019 at the Kota hospital has been the lowest .
The 963 child deaths in 2019 at J K Lon government hospital are less than in the preceding years
An average of close to 100 deaths a month
1,198 (2014)
1,260 (2015)
1,193 (2016)
1,027 (2017)
1,005 (2018)

Ashok gehlot –
‘’Death of even one child is unfortunate but there have been 1,500-1,400 deaths in a year in the past; this time the figure is 900. There are a few deaths [every day] in every hospital in the state and in the country, nothing new. Action is being taken.”

Jodhpur’s SN Medical College’s Department of Paediatrics reportedly recorded deaths of around 146 children in December 2019.

The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1,000 live births.
This rate is an important key indicator for a country’s health and standard of living – a low infant mortality rate indicates a high standard of healthcare
India has the most child deaths in the world.

65 million births take place every year.
The infant mortality rate is 38 per 1000 live births which implies an estimated 62,843 deaths annually, or an average 172 every day.

Lack of education in the mother
Malnutrition (more than half of Indian women are anaemic)
Age of the mother at the time of birth
Spacing
Whether the child is born at home or in a facility.
According to officials in the Health Ministry, approximately 1 million children are admitted to the 996 SNCUs in the country every year with an average death rate of 10%.
The death rates are usually higher in medical college-based SNCUs (like J K Lon,Kota) because they tend to get sicker babies, sometimes from faraway districts when parents rush them there in a last minute effort.