Many babies die before birth at Gandhi—ToI—21.4.11

Bushra Baseerat | TNN

Hyderabad: Over the last one year, the state health department claims to have undertaken a slew of measures to contain the high maternal and infant mortality rates in Andhra Pradesh. However, in the largest state-run tertiary care centre, Gandhi Hospital, as many as 10 to 15 babies die every month in the womb of their mothers. Turning fatal for these unborn infants and even mothers in many cases is the endless wait for an operation table.
    Last Friday, it was during a long wait at the operation theatre (OT) that a woman lost her child before it could be delivered. “With great difficulty we could save the mother as her uterus had ruptured,” said Dr Tripura Sundari, head of the gynaecology department, Gandhi Hospital. Incidentally, the woman who lost her baby was among four other pregnant women awaiting their turn to be taken into the operation theatre. Doctors here note that had there been two tables in the OT, at least two cases could have been taken up simultaneously. While the hospital is currently equipped to handle 10 deliveries a day, it is stretching services to perform four times over.
    Gynaecologists at this teaching hospital perform 30-40 deliveries per day. Of these, around 10 are caesarean deliveries. Doctors say that on any given day, at least one caesarean delivery is dangerously delayed.
    The department suffers an acute shortage of infrastructure as well as staff. An expert said that there is a severe crunch of anaesthetist and theatre nurses and because of this also, the delay is happening.
    “The hospital lacks manpower. Usually, it takes an hour to do a caesarean. In case of an HIV positive patient, it takes three hours and after such a case, the theatre has to be fumigated, which means more time. By then, anything can happen to the other patients in the queue,” said a senior gynaecologist who has worked in various maternity hospitals in the city as a superintendent. Incidentally, an HIV positive woman had lost her child on April 15 because of a delay in her being wheeled into the theatre.
    Although there are other state-run maternity hospitals, it is curious why people still opt for the poorly-equipped Gandhi for deliveries. Doctors note that other state-run hospitals are not only busier than Gandhi but do not have the wherewithal to handle complicated cases. Gandhi in need of neo-natal care units TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Hyderabad: Doctors at Gandhi Hospital on Wednesday blamed the hospital administration for not taking any proactive measures to address the slew of problems it was facing.
    Several key facilities needed are pending. For instance, two years ago the gynaecology wing of the hospital was promised a well-equipped Cemonc Centre for the care of mother and newborn, but it remains to be fulfilled till date.
    According to Dr Vanajakshi, district coordinator, hospital services, the infant mortality in hospitals under AP Vaidya Vidhana Parishad stands at around 0.5% per 200 births. Admitting that the deaths are occurring due to shortage of infrastructure, Dr Vanajakshi said the state government has sanctioned neo-natal intensive care units. “If we get these, infant mortality will come down further,” she said.
    But nothing is in the offing for Gandhi’s gynaecology wing so far.