Rajasthan HC hears PIL on infants death in Jodhpur Hospitals, seeks report from govt

Taking cognisance of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed on the disturbing reports of 146 infants death in December in a Jodhpur hospital, Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday sought a report from the government and gave major instructions to all districts including Kota to improve the conditions of the hospitals.

Some of the key directions delivered by High Court Chief Justice Inderjit Mahanti include computerising district hospitals, a surprise inspection of any two hospitals of the state, report of all vacant posts and sanctioned posts in government hospitals.

The matter is scheduled for the next hearing on February 10.

In Dr Sampurnanand Medical College in Jodhpur district, 146 infants have died in the past month.The hospital administration, however, had said that the number of child deaths was quite low as compared to the number of children admitted in the hospital in December and added that the hospital gets very serious cases referred from other hospitals in the region which has led to the high number of deaths."We are the biggest hospital in western Rajasthan. We even get infants and other patients who are referred from AIIMS, Jodhpur. 4,689 admissions of infants were done in the month of December alone, out of which 146 died. Therefore, the mortality rate is just 3 per cent which comes under acceptable norms," Dr SS Rathore, Principal of the SN Medical College had told ANI."The number of deaths might seem high but one should also see that the number of admissions is quite high at our hospital. Also, there were different reasons behind the death of infants which have occurred in the hospital," he had added.

In the JK Lon Hospital in Kota, over 100 children have lost their lives allegedly due to negligence of the administration.