Mangaluru: Newborns shifted to pvt hospitals due to NHM workers strike

Mangaluru: Due to strike by National Health Mission (NHM) workers, a few babies born at the Government Lady Goschen Hospital here had to be shifted to private hospitals.

NHM workers have been on strike for various demands since 10 days. This has affected most of the work of the Department of Health and is reported to have also affected Wenlock Hospital.

However, officials have denied the shifting of babies from the hospital.

Dr Durgaprasad, Medical Superintendent of Lady Goschen Hospital said that newborns are not being moved to a private hospital from here. They are offering all possible facilities and treatments at their hospital and will send newborns to a private hospital only if necessary. They will make internal arrangements in case of a shortage.

Similarly, Dr Sadananda Shanbhag, Medical Superintendent of Wenlock Hospital stated that they are still admitting to the neonatal ward of the hospital and are managing with the available staff. Infants with very serious problems may have been referred to a private hospital. But not all babies are shifted.

According to a source, at Lady Goschen Hospital, the neonatal ward has a total of 40 beds and 13 ventilators and there are 20 NHM employees in the intensive care unit. There were problems in operating them due to the shortage of staff. 25 to 30 newborns were shifted to private hospitals in the past 9 days. There are 2 ICUs in the neonatal ward at Wenlock Hospital, one has 12 beds and 5 ventilators and another has 6 beds. But information on how many babies have been moved from there is not available.

One of the family of a newborn shifted from Lady Goschen said that newborns are being sent to private hospitals under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. We are not being charged by the hospital, however, we have to cover the cost of the medicines ourselves and the meals. If the documents are incorrect then even hospital fees are not covered.