The dean of the hospital blamed the deaths on medicine and staff shortage
New Delhi:
Twelve newborns and as many adults died at a state-run hospital in Maharashtra’s Nanded in the last 24 hours, the hospital dean said, blaming a shortage of medicines and hospital staff.
Of 24 deaths in the last 24 hours, 12 adults died due to “various ailments, mostly snake bites”, the dean of Nanded’s Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital said.
“Six males and six female babies died in the last 24 hours. Twelve adults also died due to various ailments, mostly snake bites. We faced some difficulty since various staff were being transferred,” he said.
“We are a tertiary-level care centre and the only such place in the 70 to 80-km radius. So patients come to us from far-off places. On some days, the number of patients increases and it creates a problem for the budget,” he said.
“There is an institute Haffkine. We are supposed to buy medicines from them but that also didn’t happen. But we did buy medicines locally and provided them to the patients,” the dean added.
The Opposition in Maharashtra launched an all-out attack on the Eknath Shinde government in the state, saying the “triple-engine sarkar (of the BJP, Eknath Shinde Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP) should take responsibility”.
