India restores hospital's oxygen supply after deaths

Indian healthauthorities on Monday delivered oxygen to a public hospitalwhere 63 people have died of encephalitis in recent days, nearlyhalf of them children, as it ran out of medical supplies becauseof unpaid bills, triggering public outrage.

The deaths of the children have again exposed India'sunderfunded and poorly managed public healthcare despite PrimeMinister Narendra Modi government's vows to revamp the system.

Hundreds of people die each year in India of encephalitis, the acute swelling of the brain commonly cause byviral infection. The condition is common during the monsoon season as a result of mosquito-borne disease, butnomedical official directly linked the recent deaths to a lack ofoxygen.

But complaints that the Baba Raghav Das hospital in the eastern city ofGorakhpur did not have enough supplies has stoked anger againstthe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which governs Uttar Pradeshstate.

"We now have adequate supplies of oxygen cylinders, therewas a shortage last week... but I am not in a position to saywhether they were the cause behind the deaths," R.K. Sahai, asenior medical officer in the hospital, said.

Firestorm ofcriticism

Television images of parents emerging from the hospitalcarrying the bodies of infants and alleging they died becausethere they didn't get oxygen have led to a firestorm ofcriticism of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu hardliner who took office earlier this year.

Bipin Singh said his six-year-old daughter died on Thursdaybecause of lack of oxygen and he had seen six other children diefor the same reason.

"My daughter and other children were unable to breathe. Wekept telling the nurses that they should call the doctors. Thedoctors said they have ordered for oxygen cylinders but we neversaw them being used."

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Bahadur Nishad, who lost a four-year-old son suffering fromencephalitis, said he was ready to pay for the oxygen cylindershimself.

"They told me there was a shortage of cylinders," he saidand turned his wrath on Adityanath whoseelectoral constituency is Gorakhpur.

Other parents spoke of desperately trying to arrange basicmaterials such as cotton gauze, glucose injections and bloodsupplies as their children struggled for life in the wards.

Increased health spending

Patients continued to stream into the hospital over theweekend. Some 450 patients suffering from encephalitis wereadmitted on Saturday alone, of whom 200 were children under 12,hospital records showed.

Many were being treated on the floor and near toilets due tothe shortage of beds.

Government expenditure on public health is about one percentof GDP, among the world's lowest. In recent years, Modi'sgovernment has increased health spending and vowed to makehealthcare more affordable.

The Uttar Pradesh government fired the head of the hospitalas well as the doctor who headed the paediatrics department tohead off criticism from the opposition.

But Rajeev Misra, the former chief of the hospital, toldreporters he had repeatedly written to the state administrationto release funds to pay suppliers.

Sahai, the medical officer at the hospital, said authoritieswere investigating the reasons for the shortage of oxygencylinders.