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Expressing his unhappiness over the care of malnourished children in the nutrition rehabilitation centre at Government Wenlock Hospital, In-charge Chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Shashidhar S. Kosambe said here on Friday (November 7) that no proper register is maintained about the children taken care of at the centre. During his visit to the centre on Friday, Mr. Kosambe took Hospital Superintendent D.S. Shivaprakash, Reproductive and Child Health Officer B.V. Rajesh, and District Health and Family Welfare Officer H. Thimmaiah to task for absence of this record. Mr. Kosambe said 28 children in Dakshina Kannada have been identified as severely malnourished children. They should have been brought to the centre and taken care of for 14 days before being sent back home. Apart from providing them with the required nutrition, the State government, since August, had to pay a daily wage of ₹370 for every day that a parent stayed at the centre. To Mr. Kosambe’s question as to why parents were being paid the earlier wage of ₹100 and not the revised ₹370 since August, Dr. Shivaprakash said the order revising the wages was officially delivered to him on Friday (November 7). Healthcare personnel at the centre said no parent was staying there for 14 days and was actually leaving after the initial two days of treatment. The in-charge Chairperson expressed his displeasure towards the centre’s personnel for the improper way in which the nutritious mixture and other ingredients were being stored at the centre. Asking Dr. Shivaprakash to issue a notice to the official in-charge of the centre, Mr. Kosambe directed him and Dr. Thimmaiah to submit a report about the centre to the KCPCR in the next three days. Mr. Kosambe said he had earlier visited centres in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar, where too he found there were no proper records about children treated at the centre. “It’s a good scheme but I see a lack of interest on the part of officials in implementing it,” he told reporters. He then visited the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Wenlock Hospital’s Regional Advanced Paediatric Care Centre and found that the air-conditioning system was not working. Dr. Shivaprakash said it will be repaired in two days. The in-charge KCPCR Chairperson also visited the NICU ward and step-down NICU ward in the Government Lady Goschen Hospital.
