269 infants died at Gujarat hospital in 2019, CM Rupani ignores queries

RAJKOT: As many as 269 infants died at a government hospital in Rajkot in the last three months of 2019 with the highest number of deaths being recorded in December.

While 87 and 71 children died at Rajkot Civil Hospital in October and November respectively, the infant deaths in December stood at 111, according to Manish Mehta, the hospital's head.

The official attributed the deaths to the shortage of facilities for properly treating children at the hospital.

"We do not have ample facilities to treat the number of patients we receive. Keeping this in mind, the government has started the construction of a new hospital with 500 beds," said Mehta.

In Vadodara, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani denied answering reporters' question on the deaths of infants in the government hospital.