The acting head of intensive care at a Siberian hospital as well as its chief physician have been arrested after the deaths of nine babies at the facility, reports CBS News.
The case, which has cast a spotlight on chronic staff shortages and funding gaps in the country’s medical system, has provoked anger from Russian politicians and online commentators.
Prosecutors have charged the pair with negligence and causing death through negligence, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The exact causes of the deaths at Novokuznetsk Maternity Hospital No 1 are not yet known. But regional health authorities said the babies were all suffering from a range of diseases and died during childbirth or pregnancy.
The local Health Ministry said that 234 children were born at the hospital between 1 December and 11 January, with 17 babies considered to be in a serious condition in the hospital’s ICU.
“Of the 17 infants in a critical condition, 16 were premature, including those with extremely low birth weight. All 17 had a severe intrauterine infection,” the Health Ministry statement said. “Unfortunately, nine children did not survive.”
Reuters reported that the hospital received at least five warnings from health authorities between August and November last year, with Pavel Vorobyov, a Russian doctor, questioning why no action was taken earlier.
“With the first death, they (doctors and nurses) should have … started doing something… when nine babies have died and everyone is silent, something very strange is going on,” said.
The hospital announced last week that it had stopped accepting patients due to a high rate of respiratory infections.
A forensic probe into the deaths is under way.
Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid reported last week that the hospital was short of dozens of staff, though the hospital has denied this.
The region’s health authorities have ordered an inspection of all maternity and pre-natal hospitals.
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