SHILLONG: Capital town’s oldest maternity hospital, Ganesh Das Hospital’s muddled handling of a pregnant woman’s admission has drawn the attention of the Meghalaya Assembly’s standing Committee on Women’s Empowerment which has taken strong exception to the fiasco leading to the death of a newborn.
Taking cognizance of the case, Member of the Committee, HM Shangpliang said that the committee wanted the Government to conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit a report before the Committee.
Lamenting that this is not the first time when this government run Hospital had landed itself in a similar controversy of denying admission to a pregnant mother, Shangpliang recalled that even last year, the Hospital authorities had rejected admission to a pregnant woman after which the Committee had reprimanded the authorities who were let off after apologising before the Committee even while assuring that similar incidents would not recur.
Shangpliang said that though the Hospital had shortage of beds, the Hospital authorities should have dealt with the matter more humanely by exploring the possibility of providing space to the pregnant mother rather than sending her back home which led to the wastage of precious time.
He also said that the Committee was all for the Government to take action against the erring doctors and nurses for such “irresponsible and negligence” of duties.
When asked if the Committee would summon the Hospital authorities, Shangpliang said that the Committee would wait for the report of the Government and after examination, the Committee would decide its future course of action.
Following the incident, the State Government too had expressed its unhappiness over the matter while a show cause has been issued to the Hospital on the matter. The newborn died in the Hospital here on Tuesday evening shortly after birth, and hours after the mother had had to suffer pain and humiliation of being refused admission by the state government-run hospital in the morning only because she was from Mawlai Mawtawar, a containment zone in the city.
Health officials, however, had claimed the baby’s death was not because of delay in getting admission but due to other undisclosed complications.
