JOIN USNo docs, ayah helps to deliver babies
One must have heard of ‘candlelight dinners’ but at a community health center in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district, as many as seven babies were delivered in the candlelight on Saturday.
The incident highlights the sorry state of affairs of the health department in UP, where several senior officials and ministers are facing charges of large scale financial bunglings in the National Rural Health Mission scheme.
There was no doctor at the CHC, which is a few kilometers away from the state capital, when these deliveries took place.
All these babies were delivered under the supervision of a nurse and an ‘aya’ (a class four lady employee at the hospitals).
The senior officials of the health department were all praise for the nurse, Deepti, a contractual employee, and promised a thorough inquiry into the matter and appropriate punishment for the guilty doctor, who was supposed to be on duty.According to reports, seven pregnant women, experiencing severe labour pain, arrived at the CHC on Saturday evening.
As the women writhed in pain, the nurse and the ‘aya’ Kiran refused to admit them saying that there was no doctor, who could take care of them. “If anything goes wrong, I will be hauled and punished by the senior officials,'' Deepti told them.
In darkness
As the attendants of the women kept pleading with the nurse, she later admitted them but made it clear that there was no power and they could not operate the generator as the operator was also absent.
The attendants were asked to arrange for candles. The deliveries continued almost throughout the night and luckily there was no complication. The babies and their mothers are safe and sound.
Chief medical officer Dr Ramesh Chandra, while appreciating the work of the nurse and the ayah said stern action would be taken against the erring doctor. “An inquiry has been ordered,'' he added.