Baby-swaps are common in this hospital

The Andhra Pradesh government said it would take disciplinary action against not just the superintendent of the government maternity hospital at Nayapul, M. Uma Maheshwara Rao, but also all other senior doctors, holding them responsible for the sensational baby swapping case.

The police are also investigating whether hospital workers deliberately switched babies in exchange for money.

"Investigation is on to ascertain negligence and criminal intent on the part of Nayapul Maternity Hospital workers and the couple of Akbarbagh," the additional commissioner of police, AK Khan said.

He said, "a sweeper in the nursery, Surendra Raju, told us that he handed over the baby boy to Mahmooda Begum on the instructions of a staff nurse, Suryakala." There is also evidence of tampering with the register.

Questioning by police, lie-detector tests and receiving show cause notices are routine in the hospital. The hospital has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Last year, its workers were given lie-detector tests, some were questioned and others served show cause notices in connection with the abduction of a new born baby.

The suspect then was a woman, who befriended the father of the baby and disappeared with the child on May 11. The baby was never traced. Three newborn babies were abducted from the hospital in 1997, 1998 and 2000. Their fate too is not known.

The hospital refused to hire a private security service on the advise of police. Corruption is rampant in the hospital, and visitors must pay a bribe to workers who station themselves at the entrance collecting their private entry fee.

The two member investigating committee consisting of the additional director (communicable diseases) Lakshmi Rajyam and the joint director (medical) R. Siva Prasad in the directorate of medical education recommended action be taken against those responsible.

Also chosen for punishment was the professor of obstretics and gynaecology, Pratibha and the professor of paediatrics, Chandrakala, duty doctors and assistant professors of the paediatrics department.

A decision was also taken to suspend the head nurse, nursing staff and class-IV employees attached to the department and nursery during the period April 17-24 when the male baby of Latha Reddy was swapped with a female child.

The state government also appointed the director of civil supplies Shalini Mishra to head a hospital development society ordered to improve the working of the hospital.

The two member investigating committee said the Nayapul hospital superintendent did not even investigate the swap and at first even ruled it out.

The real mother was handed over a female baby available in the nursery though documentation clearly showed a male baby was delivered to Latha Reddy and admitted to the nursery.

The catalogue of a cover-up:

* The delivery case was handled by the juniormost post-graduate available, despite two duty doctors and the seniormost post-graduate doctors being available at that time.

* The duty doctors did not visit the nursery after being told of the referral of the baby. The supervisory staff of the nursing department did not properly monitor the nursery unit.

* The nursery-incharge did not properly supervise the working of the staff nurses. As a result neglect and complacency grew among the staff nurses, the committee said in its report.

* Simple tasks like bathing babies were delegated to ordinary maids and class IV workers and none of the workers including paediatricians bothered to check the tag and the physical findings, even though the baby's documents clearly showed a gain of 300 grams in four hours in a pre-term baby.

* The discharge procedure was not supervised properly, the committee said in its report.