Twelve newborns and as many adults died at a state-run hospital in Nanded, India's Maharashtra, in 24 hours, the hospital dean said, blaming a shortage of medicines and hospital staff, report informs via NDTV.
Of 24 deaths, 12 adults were suffering from "various ailments, mostly snake bites", the dean of Nanded's Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital said.
"Six males and six female babies died in the last 24 hours. Twelve adults also died due to various ailments, mostly snake bites. We faced some difficulty since various staff were being transferred," he said.
"We are a tertiary-level care centre and the only such place in the 70 to 80-km radius. So, patients come to us from far-off places. On some days, the number of patients increases and it creates a problem for the budget," he said.
"There is an institute Haffkine. We are supposed to buy medicines from them but that also didn't happen. But we did buy medicines locally and provided them to the patients," the dean added.
Refuting the dean's claims that there was a shortage of medicine and funds, the hospital, in a press release, said: "Essential medicines are available in the hospital. The hospital has ₹ 12 crore ($1.44 million) in funds. For this financial year, ₹ 4 crore ($480,000) has been approved. Other patients are being treated as necessary."
"There were 12 adult patients (five male and seven female) and 12 children. Among adults, four were suffering from heart disease, one from poisoning, one from gastric disease, two from kidney ailments, one from obstetric complications, and three were accident victims. Among the children, four in the terminal stage were referred from private hospitals," the statement added.
Calling the deaths "unfortunate", Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told reporters in Mumbai that more information will be sought about what happened at the hospital and action will be taken.
A committee has been formed to probe the deaths, Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director, Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, told PTI.
"A three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) district has been formed with a mandate to submit a report by 1 pm tomorrow. I am personally visiting the hospital to review the situation," he informed.
The patients were suffering from complications due to kidney stones, chronic paralysis, ulcers, pneumonia, kerosene poisoning, and septicemia among other ailments, Thane civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar had said.