Reported by Business-standard.com on June 03, 2012
Over 5,000 children died at Safdarjung hospital in 3 years | Business Standard

Over 5,000 children, including newborns, died in the past three years while undergoing treatment at the government-run multi-speciality Safdarjung hospital here, an RTI reply has revealed.

While 2,545 children died within 48 hours of admission, of which 914 were neonates (newborn), 1,833 died after that.

In reply to an RTI query by Mumbai resident Ajay Marathe, the hospital revealed that in the past three years, starting from 2009, a total of 24,924 people died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

5,382 deaths were reported from the department of paediatrics, of which 1,918 were neo-natal deaths, it said.

The department of medicine reported the highest number of deaths at 9,108, followed by 3,460 deaths from the department of burns and plastic surgery and 2,755 from the department of surgery.

Safdarjung hospital, the country's largest government-run multi-speciality hospital in the northern region had a total of 3,82,950 admissions in the past three years.

"It is surprising to know that an average of four deaths happened every day in the hospital over the past three years. This includes so many newborns. Every life is important and government should do something about it. I had asked for deaths due to infection, which they did not reply at all," Marathe said.

Of the 24,924 deaths, 10,542 died under 48 hours and 14,382 over 48 hours, he said quoting the reply.