District no stranger to healthcare infrastructure issues: Experts
attendants outside the building had no option but to follow instructions. Many were stopped at the gate.
“CM sahab is here. Hume intezar karna hoga (The CM is here, we need to wait),” said Rajwati, an attendant.
There was no free movement even inside the ward. “The guard has asked us not to go outside and if we do so, we will not be allowed to come in again. But I need to go outside to get medicines,” said Raju, an attendant. All the beds in the 100-bed ward, which is a combination of a neonatal intensive care unit and a general ward, are occupied by severely ill children.
Bihar resident Phoolmati, whose eight-year-old grandson Gullet is admitted in the neonatal ward, said she was asked to take a place in the corner as the CM was expected anytime. “My grandson is in a semi-conscious state for the past seven days. He is on oxygen support,” she said. Union health minister JP Nadda and state’s medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon too visited on Sunday. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and a BSP delegation led by its state president Ram Achal Rajbhar also came calling since the tragedy struck.
The death of at least 30 children in 48 hours in an Uttar Pradesh hospital might have pushed the state’s health crisis under the national spotlight but Gorakhpur has always grappled with a chronic healthcare infrastructure problem.
The district of Gorakhpur in eastern UP has 37% shortage of health sub-centres and just 45% of villages in the district have access to a sub-centre within five kilometres, reports the Brookings India health monitor that collates public health data.
The monitor, which provides real-time health data and measures, records that there are no sub-divisional hospitals in the district, a reflection of the poor state across Uttar Pradesh, which ranks among the bottom three big states in India on health infrastructure.
Experts have repeatedly pointed that the deaths of the children at BRD hospital was linked to a failure of infrastructure.
“Places like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar are very deficient in doctors, especially the primary health centres and sub-centres. Also, the number of medical colleges Uttar Pradesh has is grossly inadequate for such a huge state, so the emphasis has to be on strengthening the district hospitals,” said Dr K Srinath Reddy, president of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
The deaths at Gorakhpur occurred after oxygen supplies were allegedly cut over non-payment of dues.
The government has denied that oxygen supply snag caused the deaths and instead blamed Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a mosquito-borne disease.
The Brookings monitor records a 95.7% shortage of male health workers in sub-centres across Uttar Pradesh.
More than a third of sub-centres in the state are without water supply and 31% without electricity. Many community health centres show shortages in functioning X-ray machines, living quarters for specialist doctors, specialists living in quarters, functioning labour rooms and several other parameters.
“This region is grappling with a lot of issues and apart from JE, other diseases such as malaria and scrub typhus,” said Dr Jagdish Prasad, director of general health services.
The Centre on Sunday announced a National Virology Research Centre in Gorakhpur following the high number of encephalitis deaths at the city’s BRD medical college.
“Before coming here, I have approved the establishment of a research centre in Gorakhpur at a cost of ₹85 crore. This institute will conduct research into the infections of children and their possible reasons,” Union health minister JP Nadda said at a press conference in the presence of UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Sunday.
The Centre also sent a team of specialists to study the reasons behind the spread of the disease in the region and facilities provided to the patients, he said.
More than 60 children suffering from Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) died at BRD medical college over the last six days.
The BJP-led UP government, which drew criticism over the deaths after the facility allegedly defaulted on payments of ₹68 lakh to oxygen suppliers, admitted that oxygen supply was disrupted for two hours on Thursday night but ruled it out as the reason for the tragedy.
Nadda added Prime Minister Narendra Modi was concerned about the death of children.
GORAKHPUR HAS 37% SHORTAGE OF HEALTH SUBCENTRES AND JUST 45% OF VILLAGES IN THE DISTRICT
HAVE ACCESS TO A SUBCENTRE WITHIN FIVE KILOMETERS