Maharashtra govt hospital sees 24 patients, including 12 children, die in 24 hours

The dean of Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital, Nanded, said that most of the adult patients who passed away in the past 24 hours were victims of snake bites. (Representative image)

Twenty-four patients, including 12 children, have died in Maharashtra’s Nanded government hospital in the past 24 hours, according to news agency ANI.

Hospital authorities have cited several reasons behind the deaths spanning lack of medicines and staff transfer.

After the incident came to light, Dr Shyamrao Wakode from the hospital said: “Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours...12 adults also died due to various ailments. We were facing some difficulties due to transfers of staff; we were also supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute, which did not get done. However, we did procure the medicines locally and gave it to the patients,” according to ANI.

The dean of Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital, Nanded, was quoted by NDTV as saying that most of the adult patients who passed away in the past 24 hours were victims of snake bites. He added that of the deceased children, six were male babies, and six females. Maharashtra’s Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif told the Times of India that of the children that died were admitted for over two days, while the others had been admitted 24 hours before their death.

Citing budgeting issues, 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.”

The Opposition parties have asked the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra to take responsibility for the incident.

Training guns at the state government, NCP MP Supriya Sule said, “These deaths are certainly not coincidences. Each of these deaths needs to be thoroughly investigated. If there are so many deaths in one day, it is expected that the Chief Minister and the system will order an immediate inquiry considering its seriousness.”

She added CM Shinde should intervene immediately and get the concerned ministers to resign and also sought compensation for the families of the dead.

Commenting on the incident, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that this should be treated like murder and blamed the deaths on the negligence of the Maharashtra government. She said: “This is shameful, please don’t call them deaths, this is murder due to absolute negligence on the part of the unconstitutional state government. They are so busy planning influencer events or foreign trips that they have forgotten their basic job is to serve the state.”