LUCKNOW, Sept. 12 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday reprimanded officials involved in the case of a newborn, who was transferred to Lucknow from the Government Autonomous Medical College in Sultanpur and subsequently died due to lack of ventilator support. The court also mandated an investigation into the matter. It directed the additional chief secretary (ACS) of the medical department to investigate the negligence and also sought a plan from the state government to prevent such cases. The court fixed the next hearing of the case on October 1 and directed the ACS to appear again through video conferencing. A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order in open court on a PIL filed by Ashutosh Kumar Singh raising the issue of death of the newborn. The court took serious cognizance of the case in which a newborn, with congenital complications discovered after birth, was not provided a ventilator and other essential services at major hospitals in Lucknow, leading to his death within 24 hours. The court had directed the ACS/principal secretary (medical health & family welfare), V-C of KGMU (Lucknow), director of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, director of SGPGI or any responsible doctor/official designated by them and the CMO of Sultanpur to attend the hearing via video conferencing on September 11. They were present virtually. The petitioner's counsel submitted that this case involved the failure to provide a ventilator and other essential services to a newborn at the government autonomous medical college in Sultanpur. The infant required surgery, for which the college did not have a surgeon available. According to the college's lawyer, the college opened three years ago. He argued that it is a tertiary-level medical college and does not have ventilators. The newborn was admitted to KGMU, where doctors expressed their inability to treat the infant due to the unavailability of an oxygen-supported bed (O2 bed). KGMU then transferred the newborn to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute in Lucknow, where he was taken, but beds were also unavailable there. The institute then admitted the newborn to SGPGI, but due to the unavailability of beds there, the infant could not be admitted to the relevant department. As a result, the newborn died within 24 hours. The court said: "This is the situation in government hospitals. We have previously taken cognizance of such issues in several public interest litigations, one of which relates to the availability of adequate ventilators in hospitals. Here is a case where a medical college was opened in Sultanpur three years ago, but it does not have a single ventilator or a paediatric surgeon, even though deliveries take place in the same hospital. During deliveries, a situation may arise, as in this case, where the services of a specialist paediatrician or surgeon would be required, but they are not available in the said medical college. We do not know how many other medical colleges do not have these facilities." MANOJ KUMAR SINGH...