NASHIK: State health minister Deepak Sawant on Saturday said the government would provide five-six more incubators to the Nashik Civil Hospital next month.The minister, who visited the hospital, refused to take responsibility for the infant deaths at the facility.Sawant said there are 18 incubators at the hospital, which is four more than what is mentioned in the guidelines set by the Union health ministry."Although there is lack of space in the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU), the state health department will provide additional incubators with the next month," he said.As many as 241 newborns died at the Nashik Civic Hospital in the last six months, with the highest number of 55 deaths being recorded in August. The lack of adequate incubators has been one of the reasons for the high death toll of babies at the hospital.The health minister spent about 30 minutes at the hospital and interacted with the district civil surgeon Suresh Jagdale and other medical staff. He, however, had to cut short his interaction with the media after he was posed with a barrage of questions on accountability for the increasing infant death toll at the hospital and the decision to provide additional incubators after the matter was reported.Asked if he was taking responsibility for the increasing death toll of newborns at the hospital, Sawant said, "The question of taking responsibility does not arise. Preterm babies weigh as less as 400g and saving such newborns is a challenging task. The doctors are doing the best they can to save the newborns."Sawant said, "Of the total number of newborns admitted in SNCU, about 44% are born somewhere else and brought to the hospital for treatment since many of them are underweight and suffer from various diseases," said the health minister. Sawant was also asked about the state of affairs at the Nashik civil hospital, which was recently won the first prize of the central government's Kayakalp award - for public health facilities - in the state.Responding to questions, Sawant said the hospital is catering to an ever increasing number of patients. "The Nashik Civil Hospital also treats patients coming from as far as 300km. Aside from Nashik district, patients from Nandurbar and Dhule districts also visit the hospital," he said. He also mentioned the state government would consider setting up a paediatric ventilator at the hospital.Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed Nashik municipal commissioner Abhishek Krishna to expedite the process and ensure the civic body gives its approval to cut trees at the earliest," added Sawant.

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