Delhi city hospitals discriminate between in-born and out-born babies

Ramji Lal, a farm worker from Rewari in Haryana was recently in a state of shock when doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Capital refused to admit his newborn stating that he was an out-born', which means he was born in another hospital.

The premature baby born at the Gurugram Civil Hospital urgently needed a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but the father was turned away. This led to anger among doctors within the fraternity who said that most of the infant mortality happens because of this discrimination.

"The day the child was born, I took him to AIIMS on the doctor's advice. Back home, we were told that some advanced machines were required for the treatment which is only available at the premier institute. Not only were we refused admission, but nobody even looked at the critically ill child," Lal said.

Ramji's wife, Krishna delivered their son on March 1, after seven months of pregnancy. Because of the absence of a good nursery care at the civil hospital, the child was referred to AIIMS. After the doctors at the hospital refused to admit the baby, the newborn was taken to Safdarjung hospital where he was admitted at the 'out-born' nursery.

Patients have been suffering as most city hospitals refuse to admit out-borns even if is indicated by the referral hospital. Those who do admit, however, take these newborns into their out-born nursery. These children are given second-class care, according to the doctors'admission.

"If no hospital is ready to give these newborns proper care without discrimination, then delivery of the preterm pregnancy and high-risk pregnancy shouldn't be allowed. Preterm neonatal needs at least one-month standard nursery care for survival, but these dual standards are killing newborns daily," said Dr Vijay Gurjar, a senior resident at AIIMS.

Nursery care costs between Rs 50,000 and Rs 80,000 in private hospitals.