State to monitor data of newborns in pvt hosps to keep tab on unnecessary c-sections

Kolkata: In a bid to check high rates of cesarean delivery at various hospitals across Bengal, the state health department is going to bring a mechanism to monitor monthly data relating to the birth of newborns in all the private hospitals.

State government will conduct an audit under which all the private hospitals will have to submit the details about the birth of newborns every month. It was learnt that the private hospitals will have to submit the report containing the details of any particular month within the 5th of the very next month. The hospitals will have to furnish the information as to how many cesarean and normal deliveries they had performed.

The main purpose of the move is to stop the propensity of the private hospitals to perform cesarean delivery only to make more money. Most of the private hospitals prefer to conduct cesarean delivery on the women. The package of cesarean delivery is higher than that of normal delivery.

According to a state Health department figure, over 88 per cent of infants in private hospitals and nursing homes are born out of cesarean delivery while in the government hospitals and state run maternity clinics; only 33 per cent infants are born through cesarean delivery. Senior health officials have recently held a meeting with the representatives of various private hospitals.