LNJP's newborn mortality rate higher than national aveg

NEW DELHI: In a shocking revelation about the state of child care in Delhi's hospitals, the statistics indicate that mortality rate of newborns in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital here is about six times higher than the national average.
    
The neonatal mortality rate in the hospital is 211 per 1000 births while the national average is 37 per 1,000, the hospital said in a reply to an RTI application.
    
The hospital, whose inborn nursery has a single unit of transport incubator for newborns that was installed in 1984, also has a high death rate in case of newborns referred from other hospitals, with the number standing at 297 deaths per thousand.
     
Out of the 2,246 children born in the hospital, 476 died from January 2006 to September 2008, the hospital said.
     
Information obtained under an RTI filed by NGO Uday Foundation in capital's major hospitals, however, shows a good record at AIIMS' and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital's child care facilities.
     
While only 107 newborns died at AIIMS from January 2006 to September 2008 out of a total 5402, making it 19.8 deaths per thousand births, RML reported the best track record with only 4.8 deaths reported per thousand births.
     
AIIMS has less than 2 per cent of neonatal mortalities, "despite catering to high risk population," the response to the RTI from India's premier medical institute said.
     
The RTI also revealed lack of child care facilities at Safdarjung hospital, whose Paediatrics department does not even have an Intensive Care Unit.