Over 8,200 kids' deaths at Safdarjung: NHRC seeks explanation

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Friday issued a notice to the Safdarjung Hospital alleging that over 8,200 children died at the institution in the national capital in the past five years.

"We have also asked the secretary of the health ministry to reply in four weeks," an NHRC official said.

According to the commission, R.H Bansal, a representative of an NGO, in his petition to the NHRC alleged that over 8,200 children up to the age of five years died at the hospital during the last five years.

Bansal claimed that he got the information under an RTI query and alleged that of these 8,200 children, about 3,000 were newborns.

"The petition also alleged that five out of 18 ventilators for children were not functional. The conditions were unhygienic and there was an acute shortage of essential services at the hospital. Women were also dying during pregnancy and the complainant requested for NHRC's intervention," an NHRC statement said.

The NHRC Thursday issued a notice to the union health secretary on a complaint alleging that three government hospitals in the capital - Safdarjung Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital and Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital - conducted illegal clinical drug trials on nearly 3,500 children during the last five years. - IANS