Ministry report blames hospital,PGIMER gives it clean chit

According to the report,absence of proper infection control measures were seen in the hospital.

The Rajasthan government on Wednesday said that an experts panel from the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER),Chandigarh has given a clean chit to the administration of Jodhpurs Umaid hospital,where 17 pregnant women died last month because of contaminated intravenous fluids .

This is contary to a separate report prepared by experts from the Union Health Ministry that found inadequacies in terms of non-adherence to treatment protocols at the state government-run hospital.

A senior health official told The Indian Express that while the Union ministry is waiting for the report from the Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata,our own report found various flaws in the hospital.

Story continues below this ad

The report,handed over to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad,also pointed out lack of proper attention to women in labour and absence of adequate supervision by senior faculty members. According to the report,absence of proper infection control measures were seen in the hospital.

Taking a note of the report,Azad on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot,requesting him to take steps to develop proper monitoring mechanism.

On Wednesday,however,Rajasthan Health Minister Aimauddin Ahmed said the PGIMER panel,which visited the hospital on March 14 and March 15,did not find fault with the doctors there. He said the PGIMER report,which was handed over to the state government on Wednesday,has confirmed that it was indeed contaminated ringer lactate intravenous fluids that had caused the series of deaths since February 13 at the hospital.

According to the report,the infected ringer lactate solution was administered in varying amounts to all the pregnant women who died. The infected IV fluids were administered to women who were already in a critical condition and had some pregnancy related complications. The infected IV fluids only exacerbated their condition leading to death, said Ahmed.

Story continues below this ad

He added that the Central Drug Laboratory on Monday had confirmed that batch number 0077 manufactured by the Indore-based Parentral Surgical India Ltd was infected with bacteria.

The PGIMER team also stated that although Umaid Hospital was over-crowded with patients,negligence could not have been a cause for the series of deaths. The 17 women who died hailed from different regions in Rajasthan and operations were conducted in different operation theatres in the hospital,hence the deaths could not have been caused by local factors, it said.