Lok Nayak has highest rate of newborn child deaths

On the eve of Children’s Day, disturbing news has emerged from Delhi hospitals. The death rate of newborns in the Capital’s LNJP is about seven times higher than that of the national Neonatal Motility Rate, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Nov 14, 2008, 02:13:45 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

On the eve of Children’s Day, disturbing news has emerged from Delhi hospitals. The death rate of newborns in the Capital’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP) is about seven times higher than that of the national Neonatal Motility Rate (3.7 per cent) and 14 times more than that of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (1.8 per cent).

About 21 per cent of newborns and 30 per cent of referral newborns in LNJP have died since 1 January 2006, the hospital, informed NGO Uday Foundation, in a reply to a Right to Information

application.

The NGO had filed the RTI in LNJP, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and AIIMs, asking similar questions about the status of newborn babies.

Of the 2,246 children born in LNJP from 2006 till October this year, 476 died, with 24 per cent being because of septicemia.

In case of newborns referred from other hospitals, the death rate was about 30 per cent. The hospital, however, said these babies were brought in a very bad medical condition and it was the primary cause of high NMR.

AIIMS, which also receives high referral newborns, reported NMR of just 1.8 per cent. “This is despite AIIMS catering to high-risk newborns referred to the hospital,” the hospital said in its RTI reply.

Of the 5,402 babies (referred and newborns) only 107 died between 2006 and October 2008, indicating high quality childcare.

In Safdarjung Hospital, 14.1 per cent of 9,423 babies admitted in the newborn childcare unit died, with 40 per cent dying of septicemia, an infection of blood.

Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital reported best neonatal care, with NMR of less than 1 per cent. The rate of referrals was close to 10 per cent.

The RTI replies also revealed inadequate facilities for newborns in both LNJP and Safdarjung, where over 1,000 patients are registered in newborn intensive care units every year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.