Gorakhpur infant deaths: Yogi to take action based on CS report

Lucknow: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath will reportedly wait for the inquiry report from the chief secretary (CS) on the death of 30 children in Gorakhpur before taking action on the guilty.

The report by the district magistrate, in which two senior doctors have been blamed for the mismanagement of oxygen shortage at the BRD Medical College (BRDMC), has been received by the government.

“We will wait for the committee headed by chief secretary Rajiv Kumar to submit its report by this weekend before we arrive at any conclusion,” said a senior official in the CM secretariat. The inquiry conducted by district magistrate Rajeev Rautela has found that Dr Satish Kumar, the head of the hospital’s anaesthesia department, who was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing supply of oxygen, was primarily responsible for the disruption.

The inquiry said the doctor went to Mumbai when the BRDMC was still grappling with the shortage. This, the report says, amounts to dereliction of duty.

The suspended principal of the BRDMC, Dr Rajiv Misra, has also been blamed for lack of supervisory control and delayed payments to Pushpa Sales, the firm that supplied oxygen to the hospital.

Dr Kafeel Khan, the head paediatrician who was the only one to have been sacked apart from the principal, however, has not been indicted in this report.

The report did say there were gaps in coordination between four top doctors including Dr Khan. Government officials had earlier held Dr Khan responsible for the shortage. The report also blamed the firm that was on a contract with the hospital to supply liquid oxygen, saying it should not have cut off supply due to non payment of bills since it was a question of saving lives.

UP health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh said that loss of life due to such a reason was nothing less than a “heinous crime”. However, he added that all aspects related to the deaths at the state-run BRD medical college hospital were being probed by the committee led by the UP chief secretary and those found guilty would be punished. He further said that a report had been sought from all medical colleges and hospitals on the availability of oxygen or payment issues and added that everything had been found in order. The minister said that hospitals and community health centres in the area were being provided all necessary facilities so that they are well equipped and patients do not have to run to the BRD medical college.