JOHOR BARU: Allegations that Segamat Hospital is a ‘cradle of death’ for newborns are baseless, the Johor Health Department said today.
Lambasting claims that have been making the rounds on social media that the hospital had a high infant mortality rate (IMR), state Health Director Dr Selahuddeen Abd Aziz said the hospital had an IMR of 5.0 per 1,000 live births.
He said the figure was within the Health Ministry’s accepted standard of 5.5 per 1,000 live births.
“For the record, all infant mortality cases are investigated to identify cause of death, which among others, could include defect, infections, brain haemorrhage, kernicterus (rare kind of brain damage that can happen in newborns with jaundice) and inborn error of metabolism.
“If the investigations find that there has been negligence during the administration of treatment, action will be taken,” he said.
Dr Selahuddeen advised the public to verify before spreading allegations on social media that could paint a negative picture of the state’s health service.
He was responding to a Facebook posting on June 28 which claimed that the hospital had an unacceptably high infant mortality rate even though the country had been independent for more than 60 years.
In the posting, which has gone viral, the Facebook user accused doctors there of lacking expertise in obstetrics and gynaecology. - Bernama