Health Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến yesterday ordered the immediate transfer of critically ill infants from a provincial hospital to centrally-administered ones.– VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Health Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến yesterday ordered the immediate transfer of critically ill infants from a provincial hospital to centrally-administered ones.

She made the order after leading a working team to the northern province of Bắc Ninh to work with the provincial Department of Health (DoH) on the deaths for four infants at the province’s Hospital of Obstetrics and Paediatrics on Monday.

The minister ordered the health department and the hospital to immediately transfer the infants in severe conditions to central hospitals, inspect and control the entire anti-infection process at the hospital’s neonatal department and the department of internal paediatrics.

She also asked doctors to remain calm and perform well their medical examination and treatment of others patients.

In the future, the hospital should be more careful in examining the babies’ conditions to keep overloading in the neonatal department to a minimum, Tiến said.

She said the hospital should also ensure that the department should soon install adequate facilities and equipment and ensure sufficient human resources.

Septic shock

The provincial health department yesterday announced its preliminary findings on the cause of death of four infants at the Bắc Ninh Hospital of Obstetrics and Paediatrics.

It said four pre-term and low-weight at birth infants whose mothers had a history of obstetric and/or gynecological diseases had received appropriate obstetric treatment.

All four babies had postpartum respiratory failure and despite active and prompt treatment, they suffered infections after 3 to 5 days that progressed to septicemia and septic shock. They did not respond to any of the anti-shock treatments deployed.

The council of experts said the neonatal sepsis might be related to hospital-acquired infections.

Dr. Tô Thị Mai Hoa, director of the Bắc Ninh Health Department, affirmed that the hospital would be asked to take all measures to rectify its anti-infection procedures and increase the staff strength of its neonatal care, active recovery and internal paediatric units.

Earlier, hospital director Lê Văn Nam had said that they had immediately sealed the medicine and equipment used for treating the four babies and carried out a thorough check of all related treatment devices and water sources.

The hospital is currently treating a total of 700 patients including 80 infants, and 20 premature babies are on respiratory support.

The doctors on duty the day the four infants died had been temporarily suspended, Nam said.

According to a hospital report, all four babies were born prematurely between the 30th and 34th week of pregnancy at the hospital. The four-to-eight-day-old infants all received special care and treatment since birth. The heaviest baby weighed 2.3 kilograms at birth, while the smallest one weighed just 1.6 kilograms. — VNS