Five more babies have died since yesterday, taking the crib death toll today to 23 in the state-run Malda Sadar Hospital in the past one week.
Hospital sources said the five babies died between 8 pm yesterday and 12 noon.
They said a decision was taken to increase the number of beds in the newborn care unit to 22 from 15, besides raising the number of beds in the neo-natal care unit and the number of child specialists.
Hospital principal Debasish Bhattacharya told PTI that most of the crib deaths were cases referred from areas outside Malda with bronchopneumonia, septicaemia and premature low-birth weight.
He said that the hospital was overburdened with patients two and a half times than the total number of beds.
"We have already informed the state health department about the ordeal that patients, doctors, paramedical staff and the employees are facing in the hospital which needs to be seriously looked into," he said.
According to Bhattacharya, patients from neighbouring North and South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Jharkhand besides Bangladesh availed of the hospital's services.
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