After six tribal infants died at Shahdol district hospital in a day, health minister Tulsi Silawat inspected it on Wednesday and on instructions from chief minister Kamal Nath, he suspended the chief medical health officer and civil surgeon for the duration of the investigation.

Silawat also met families of children admitted to SNCU and patients in other wards and spoke with hospital staff. He told TOI, that the relatives of the babies who died would be contacted, and all help will be provided to them. The CMHO and civil surgeon have been suspended till the investigation is over. The district collector has been asked to investigate and submit a report, which will decide the next course of action.

A BJP delegation, led by former minister Jai Singh Marawi, handed a memorandum to Silawat, asking for action. Six babies had died in a span of 13 hours at the hospital between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, triggering allegations of negligence. CMHO Rajesh Pandey had denied any negligence and said that out of the six, two were brought to the hospital in critical condition and were admitted to SNCU for more than 15 days. Three other patients had pneumonia in a laterstage and all of them were given proper treatment and assistance of doctors from the medical college was also taken.

Source: ET Healthworld