Death of children and illegal drug trials attracts attention of NHRC
10 Feb, 2013The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to Union Health Secretary and Medical Superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital returnable in four weeks on a complaint by RH Bansal. He has alleged that more than 8,200 children have died in the past five years at the institution, including about 3000 were newly born.
Bansal has claimed that he got the information from the hospital under RTI. A statement by NHRC statement said that "He has also alleged that five out of 18 ventilators for children were not functional. The conditions were unhygienic and there was an acute shortage of essential services at the hospital…."He has also alleged that women were also dying during pregnancy in the hospital."
The NHRC has also issued a notice to the Union Health Secretary on a complaint alleging that three government hospitals of Delhi conducted illegal clinical drug trials on nearly 3,500 children during the last five years.
The hospitals are:
- Safdarjung Hospital (2,056 children),
- Kalawati Saran Children Hospital (1,023) and
- Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (400).