UP woman delivers baby in hospital corridor, probe begins

Agencies
August 20, 2019

Farrukhabad, Aug 20: Delivering babies outside the hospital or on way to the hospital has become a common occurrence in Uttar Pradesh.

In the latest incident on Sunday night, a woman was forced to deliver her child in the corridor of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, in full public view, after the doctors refused to admit her, saying there were no beds available.

The newly-born baby was lying in one end of the corridor, on what appears to be a piece of red cloth. A woman relative later picks up the baby.

According to reports, the woman was taken to the labour room in the hospital by the doctors on duty after she gave birth to her baby.

Monika Rani, the District Magistrate of Farukkhabad, said she has already ordered a probe into the incident.

"I have taken suo motu cognizance and ordered an enquiry. We will try and ascertain the truth behind the incident. If anyone is found guilty of negligence, we will take strict action," she said.

The Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital is the only specialised government hospital in Farukkhabad. It was in the news in 2017 too, when 49 babies died in a month there, just days after reports of child deaths at a hospital in Gorakhpur due to lack of oxygen.

Parents had blamed a shortage of medicine and oxygen for the Farukkhabad hospital deaths too. The state government, however, had denied it.

India has seen a 20 per cent fall in neonatal deaths -- deaths within the first month after birth of a child -- between 2011 and 2016, according to the World Health Organisation.

There has also been a 33 per cent improvement in survival rate among children between the first month and a year after birth, referred to as post-neonatal. But despite the improvement, 1 in 40 babies die during birth in India.

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Agencies
June 9,2020

New Zealand's research institute in Antarctica is scaling back the number of projects planned for the upcoming season, in an effort to keep the continent free of coronavirus, it was reported on Tuesday.

The government agency, Antarctica New Zealand, told the BBC on Tuesday that it was dropping 23 of the 36 research projects.

Only long-term science monitoring, essential operational activity and planned maintenance will go ahead.

The upcoming research season runs from October to March.

"As COVID-19 sweeps the planet, only one continent remains untouched and (we) are focused on keeping it that way," Antarctica New Zealand told the BBC.

The organisation's chief executive Sarah Williamson said the travel limits and a strict managed isolation plan were the key factors for keeping Scott Base - New Zealand's research facility - virus free.

"Antarctica New Zealand is committed to maintaining and enhancing the quality of New Zealand's Antarctic scientific research. However, current circumstances dictate that our ability to support science is extremely limited this season" she said.

Earlier in April, Australia announced that it would scale back its activity in the 2020-21 summer season.

This included decreasing operational capacity and delaying work on some major projects.

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Agencies
June 27,2020

Mumbai, Jun 27: The Bombay High Court observed that COVID-19 patients from poor and indigent sections cannot be expected to produce documentary proof to avail subsidised or free treatment while getting admitted to hospitals.

The court on Friday was hearing a plea filed by seven residents of a slum rehabilitation building in Bandra, who had been charged ₹ 12.5 lakh by K J Somaiya Hospital for COVID-19 treatment between April 11 and April 28.

The bench of Justices Ramesh Dhanuka and Madhav Jamdar directed the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in the court.

The petitioners had borrowed money and managed to pay ₹10 lakh out of ₹12.5 lakh that the hospital had demanded, after threatening to halt their discharge if they failed to clear the bill, counsel Vivek Shukla informed the court.

According to the plea, the petitioners were also overcharged for PPE kits and unused services.

On June 13, the court had directed the state charity commissioner to probe if the hospital had reserved 20% beds for poor and indigent patients and provided free or subsidised treatment to them.

Last week, the joint charity commissioner had informed the court that although the hospital had reserved such beds, it had treated only three poor or indigent persons since the lockdown.

It was unfathomable that the hospital that claimed to have reserved 90 beds for poor and indigent patients had treated only three such persons during the pandemic, advocate Shukla said.

He further argued that COVID-19 patients, who are in distress, cannot be expected to produce income certificate and such documents as proof.

However, senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, who represented the hospital, said the petitioners did not belong to economically weak or indigent categories and had not produced documents to prove the same.

A person who is suffering from a disease like COVID-19 cannot be expected to produce certificates from a tehsildar or social welfare officer before seeking admission in the hospital, the bench noted and asked the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in court within two weeks.

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Agencies
February 26,2020

Unnao, Feb 26: Ever heard of someone wishing a 'bright future' for the dead? In a bizarre incident in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, a village head issued a death certificate with the wish for an elderly man who had died last month.

The incident took place in the Sirwariya village in Asoha block where an elderly person Laxmi Shankar died after a prolonged illness on January 22.

His son went to the village head Babulal and requested him to issue a death certificate that he needed for some financial transactions.

Babulal not only issued the death certificate, but also 'wished' 'a bright future for the deceased' on the document.

The village head wrote in the death certificate -- "Main inke ujjwal bhavishya ki kaamna karta hoon (I wish him a bright future)."

The letter went viral on the social media on Monday after which the village head apologised for the error and issued a new death certificate.

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