AHMEDABAD: Over 2,447 newborn babies and 156 mothers have died in the last three months in hospitals across Gujarat, exposing the poor condition of the state's healthcare system.
According to the government's health management data, 2132 cases of severe anaemia were reported in newborn babies from April 1 to June 30. While 27,138 children in the state were born with low birth weights, 1,20,328 were malnourished.
The Health and Family Welfare Department of Gujarat implemented a mHealth Programme called TeCHO+ (Technology for Community Health Operations), which revealed disturbing statistics.
According to the data, Ahmedabad tops the list of cities with 15 maternal fatalities, Kutch with 11 deaths,
Banaskantha and Dahod with 10 deaths, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bharuch, and Narmada with nine, seven. three and eleven maternal fatalities respectively.
Dahod district saw 215 newborn mortality deaths, whereas Ahmedabad reported 199 deaths, 166 in Banaskantha, 165 in Kutch, 142 in Mehsana, 113 in Anand, 105 in Sabarkantha, and 73 in Vadodara district.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi stated, "The Gujarat government spends several crores on various health schemes, but the deaths seem to be increasing." A total of 7.15 lakh children have been malnourished in the last five years. The number of deaths of newborn children and mothers dying during childbirth, which are displayed on the government's app itself, demonstrates the Gujarat government's inefficiency in the health sector,” he alleged.