Hospital blamed for baby deaths

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-10-14  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed that a hospital in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province was responsible for eight newborn deaths and the resulting cover-up.

The ministry announced a report on the investigation of the eight babies who died after contracting infections between September 5 and 15 at the No. 1 hospital affiliated with Xi'an Jiaotong University in Shaanxi's capital.

Investigators tested the hands of doctors and nurses involved, objects in hospital rooms, feeders and rubber nipples the babies used, as well as incubators they stayed in. The results revealed they were polluted by bacteria such as golden staph and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The hospital's neonatology department had "obvious flaws" in disinfection and isolation, the ministry said.

The hospital administration had failed to apply the government regulation on hospital-infection management. It didn't set up an independent department of infection control or assign enough medical workers to carry out the work, it said.

Due to lax management, the hospital neither monitored the infection cases nor controlled the outbreak, the report said.

It also didn't report the newborn deaths to the health department. "There were facts of covering up a serious hospital infection," the report said.

Hospital President Ma Aiqun and Vice President Lu Yi were fired on September 28. Liu Li, the hospital's neonatology department director, and Guo Xi'er, the department's head nurse, were fired for dereliction of duty. Five other hospital officials were also dismissed.