The death of eight infants at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the National Referral Hospital in Thimphu recently had left the parents questioning the infection control measures in the unit.
The parents said eight babies died from March 11 to April 4 in NICU. However, the hospital says seven babies died last month.
The parents who spoke to BBS under anonymity said poor infection control measures and negligence from health workers in the NICU have resulted in the death of the babies.
“Some of the health workers are caring but some of them seem to be quite careless, negligent and even difficult to approach them,” a parent said.
“We are advised to maintain hygiene, wash our hands with soap and use hand sanitizers. But I found poor hand hygiene among staff members, especially staff nurses. They often check a seriously ill child without using hand sanitizers and check another child, which I feel is a source of infection,” another parent said.
Some parents also alleged that some medical trainees attached to NICU are not confident enough to handle infants.
To this, the hospital clarified that, since the national referral hospital is a teaching hospital it has lots of trainees. However, the hospital said, there are rules and regulations in place for the trainees and they are made to work under the guidance of trainers.
One of the parents also said doctors, are not seeking parents’ consent while inserting intubation in the babies.
But the hospital said, “since it is all to do with an emergency situation, and a doctor is bound to perform his duty what is in the best interests of the patient. There is no time to seek permission from the parents especially when the oxygen saturation in the blood is not improving with bag-mask ventilation. In a non-emergent situation, the doctor should take consent from the relatives before intubating a patient.”
The hospital says the death of seven babies in the NICU were born preterm, which means babies born before 33 weeks of pregnancy. “Of seven newborn deaths, only one baby was born normal which was also preterm at 32 weeks of pregnancy, two babies were referred from Phuentshogling hospital and four were delivered through caesarean section.”
The hospital management added that all seriously sick babies and mothers with pregnancy-related complications are referred to the hospital.
“Babies who are born preterm and babies born to mother who has pregnancy-related complication are high-risk babies and develop complication and many such babies do not survive.”
Apart from seven infant deaths in March, the hospital recorded 9 newborn deaths in January, two in February this year.
Regarding, the lack of hygiene at the NICU, the hospital stated that it improved drastically since the initiation of quality improvement. Last year, a bacterial infection outbreak at the national referral hospital led to the death of 11 infants in a month.
