Only three babies died of septicaemia - minister

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

The investigation on the deaths of 13 infants at Mahamodara Hospital special baby care unit found that only three had died due to septicaemia. All other deaths had been caused not by septicemia but other causes. Six dead infants were extremely premature, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

Addressing a press briefing at the Health Education Bureau Auditorium yesterday, Minister Sirisena said that the weight of some infants were less than 1,000 kgs.

"It is normal for bacterial infections to occur in any neonatal baby care unit in the world. A routine inspection is conducted to detect the growth of bacterias in all such units in the world including Sri Lanka. Sometimes, the units are closed for clean ups. The unit at Mahamodara Hospital will open after it is sterilised. There are no problems at the neonatal baby care units of Colombo South Teaching Hospital and Castle Street Maternity Hospital," he said.

Minister Sirisena pointed out that a full investigation was conducted on the quality of the two drugs given to the mother at De Soysa Maternity Hospital, Colombo who died.

"The investigations proved that the two drugs were of high quality. No low quality drugs were imported, distributed or used in state hospitals since I took over the Health Ministry. A separate investigation is being conducted to find out the real cause of the woman. The heart unit of Karapitiya Teaching Hospital will be opened soon after renovations," the minister said.

The total population of Sri Lanka is only 20 million but 45 to 50 million paracetamol tablets are consumed a month. This is strange and many patients turn up in state hospitals falling sick after taking an overdose of paracetamol. The Health Ministry issued a circular to heads of state health institutions requesting them to keep records of issuing paracetamol to patients and to prescribe only required number of doses. The circular does not limit issuing of paracetamol tablets to patients, Minister Sirisena said.

The government spends large amounts of funds on individual patients on requests in addition to funds allocated for drugs supply to state hospitals. The government spent Rs 10.95 million for 96 vials of medicine for one patient recently. The Government spend similar amounts of funds on many other patients warded in state hospitals. The government spent Rs 550 million on such patients in 2011. Some cancer drugs cost Rs 250,000 to 300,000, Minister Sirisena added.