NCW cites faulty maternity services, urges Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to intervene

A pandemic like COVID-19 has severely tested the country's health infrastructure. Pregnant women being denied admission by several hospitals is one such major issue which the health infrastructure is dealing with. With less number of beds and maximum ambulances designated only for COVID-19 patients, there have been reports of some hospitals straightaway denying treatment to other patients with serious medical conditions.

'Ensure non COVID-19 ambulance service'

Citing the increasing number of such cases especially maternity services, National Commission of Women (NCW) has written to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, urging him to intervene. The letter states that NCW urges, "Health Minister to intervene in the matter and requests the Ministry to issue a direction to Health departments of every state/UT for ensuring non-COVID-19 ambulance services, allocation of separate beds for pregnant women and a dedicated helpline number to safeguard the health of women and their newborn babies."

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Recently, a 30-year-old woman who was 8 months pregnant, unfortunately, died when she was turned away from 8 hospitals in a span of 12 hours, as she was grappling with breathlessness and high blood pressure. Authorities of all 8 hospitals under probe currently, had initially said that they didn't have enough beds. Citing this incident and many more cases, the National Commission of Women has urged the Union Health Ministry to look into the lapses in the part of hospital authorities.

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This is the second unfortunate incident to take place within a fortnight in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. A life was lost owing to unavailability of timely medical treatment on the night of May 25 as a newborn child died due to lack of medical support as his father kept running from one hospital to another between Greater Noida and Noida. The district administration had intervened and also ordered a probe in the matter. Two private hospitals were found to be responsible for criminal negligence.

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Looking at such medical conditions in the country currently, many people are getting discouraged to go to a hospital. The Commission also mentioned that it had earlier written to all states/UTs regarding proper implementation of programmes and schemes for the institutional delivery mechanism to control maternal and infant mortality rate in India.

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