Andhra's human rights body calls for report on infants' death

Taking a serious note of the death of six infants at a government hospital in Vijayawada allegedly because of strike by junior doctors, the state human rights body today directed officials to submit a report in the matter by tomorrow.

Infants died at the Vijayawada government hospital yesterday allegedly due to unavailability of oxygen, which was the fallout of the doctors' strike.

"The junior doctors have no right to strike work. The medical profession falls under the (category of) emergency service. A doctor has no right to strike work," the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission (APSHRC) said in an order, taking  suo motu cognisance of the deaths.

"Striking work is certainly a professional misconduct, and stringent action has to be taken against such misconduct. It is not understandable as to why the principal secretary in health department, has not taken this aspect into consideration and as to why necessary disciplinary action and criminal action has not been taken," it said.

The director of health and the district medical and health officer of Krishna district should have taken alternative steps to attend to patients, the commission said.

Such inaction on the part of the officials is also serious violation of human rights, it asserted.

The reports from all the concerned authorities should reach by 11am tomorrow, the commission said.