Mangaluru: Health and Family welfare Minister U T Khader visited Lady Goschen hospital here on May 12.
After visiting the hospital Khader addressing the mediapersons said, “Lady Goschen is the pride of Mangaluru. Lady Goschen is well known for mother and child care. When 2 infants died within a week, in the interest of the public, the district administration and health department formed a committee to find the reason for the death of the infants. There is no shortage of gynecologist, physicians nor pediatricians. The KMC and the health department is taking care of the patients. There is a demand to have full time physicians which we will appoint soon. In regard to the shortage of nurses, at present we have 60 nursing staffs with 18 gynecologists. Under the leadership of Shanthram Baliga the Pediatric department is working very well.
At present the number of patients are increasing. According to the intake of patients we need 120 staff. Along with the KMC hospital we will depute nurses in Lady Goschen. In Wenlock hospital every year 33 nurses complete their nursing, once they complete their studies, they go out for work since they do not get any stipend during their bond period. The state government has decided to pay minimum stipend of Rs 7000 for nurses. Henceforth the nurses will be paid stipend during their bond period to retain them.
When asked about the cause of the infants death Khader said that, A committee has been formed to investigate the the cause, only after they submit the report the exact cause will be known. The nurses are doing their best working round the clock.
In the year 2014-15 till February in the entire district only 2 infants died and in the month of March 2015 there were three 3 deaths, in April 3 and May so far two infants have died. In the last 2.5 months 8 infants died. Most of the women go to government hospitals for delivery, when there are complicated deliveries they are shifted to Lady Goschen.
When asked about Dr Shakuntala who was shifted to Wenlock hospital from Lady Goschen, Khader said that it is an administrative matter, we did not punish anyone. When such cases continuously happen in the hospital we have to take some precautions. This is not a punishment, this is a order from the health department to investigate the cause of the deaths. We have also formed a investigating committee with the members of State NHM N R Suresh, Dr Bharati Senior gynecologist and Pediatrician Shantaram Baliga. They will study the cases and submit a report within three days.
The construction work of the new hospital has slowed because the contractor has given priority to his other projects. By showing the construction project of Lady Goschen they have taken other two projects. We have warned the contractor and will put him in blacklist if no satisfactory progress is shown in the construction work. By using our project they have succeeded in getting the NITK project which they are working on priority basis.
Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim, ZP CEO Sreevidya and others were also present.