Gorakhpur deaths: CAG red flagged several flaws in June

Kalyan Ray, New Delhi, DH News Service, Aug 13 2017, 21:22 IST

Disruption in the oxygen supply is not the only deficiency that Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das medical college has experienced in the recent months.

The government-run hospital, which is in the eye of the storm following the death of nearly 60 kids in the last few days, was found deficient in using several critical medical equipment, the Comptroller and Auditor General reported in June 2017.

But ironically, it was the paediatrics department that fared better than other departments in terms of having the requisite number of medical instruments as per the Medical Council of India norms. The two worst performers were orthopaedics and ophthalmology departments.

The BRD hospital takes care of the bulk of the acute encephalitis syndrome cases, which is common in Gorakhpur and adjoining areas in the monsoon areas.

“In BRD, Gorakhpur, equipment like colposcope (used for screening of cases of cervix cancer), Nd-YAG Laser (used for intraepithelial lesion treatment), NST machine (used for foetal monitoring during labour) and ultra-sonography machine (used for prenatal diagnosis and gynaecological diagnosis) were not functional for more than five years due to lack of annual maintenance contract,” the CAG said.

The audit watchdog observed that 218 equipment installed in 11 departments of BRD, Gorakhpur was not covered under any annual maintenance contract.

The requests for allocation of funds of Rs 1.05 crore in October 2015 and Rs 1.01 crore in May 2016 were sent by the principal to the Directorate of Medical Education and Training for the AMC.

However, as of August 2016, no funds were allocated to the college, the CAG report noted, red-flagging the systemic flaws associated with the functioning of many government-run medical colleges and hospitals.

The hospital purchased an MRI machine in September 2015, in violation of several government norms giving undue benefit to the suppliers. But almost eight months later, when the hospital was audited in May 2016, the machine was lying unused as the hospital admitted that it didn't have trained staff.

The hospital is located in the constituency of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath.