Even after swapping case, babies share cradles at Nayapul

HYDERABAD: Latha may have got her baby back, but the baby-swapping incident hasn’t altered the way the Government Maternity Hospital, Nayapul functions: It still has three babies to a cradle and patients still share beds.
But a visit to one of the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) of the hospital by a The Times of India reporter on Thursday brought to light more problems than just the paucity of cradles.The cradles are marked by numbers, but the baby that’s in cradle number seven could very well appear in cradle number one after sometime and then shifted to yet another cradle a little while later.
“Babies here are not identified by the cradles they are kept in but by the tags. Sometimes four babies share one cradle. There are about 45 babies and about 10 cradles. What do you expect us to do?’’ a nurse asked.
Apart from the cradle problem, two of the NICUs have wooden doors which are bolted from outside when the doctor — whose room is adjacent — is not in. As there is no glass panel on the door, it makes it impossible for doctors to see whether the babies are safe. A doctor, however, said that the hospital is planning to put a glass panel on the door. Asked why the doors are bolted from outside, a midwife said this was so that if anyone walked in, the click of the bolt would alert the doctors.
However, a doctor from Niloufer Hospital, Red Hills, said: “In a general ward the patients can be left without a doctor as they have attendants. But in an NICU, the babies should not be left to themselves.�
And when the door is kept open, it’s child’s play for anyone wanting to walk away with a baby.
On the visiting hours, a midwife said: “The time to see babies in the NICU is between 5 pm and 6 pm. But one can pay a bribe of Rs 100 and see the baby at any time. But now the nurses are careful from whom they accept bribes.�