At least three more infants died in Pagoda's District Headquarters (DHQ) Teaching Hospital, taking the death toll to 19 on Sunday. The nursery of the DHQ hospital has 25 beds and five incubators but it had 50 newborns admitted by Friday, with 20 of them in critical condition. Incubators could only be provided to five babies.
"It is a tragic incident," said Dr Nadia Aziz, member of Punjab Hospitals Health Committee. She added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken notice of the new-born deaths at the DHQ Sargodha and had ordered suspension of the medical superintendent.
Dr Nadia Aziz said that out of the 19 deaths, the delivery of five infants were carried out by unskilled attendants and "eight of the newborns had very low birth weight". "The government is committed to provide better health facilities to the people in public hospitals in Punjab," she added.
It has been alleged that the reason for the deaths was due to absence of facilities, including unavailability of oxygen and incubators shortage, and negligence of the doctors.
The Punjab government had reportedly issued directions to the authorities to provide 20 incubators to the hospital at the earliest.
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