/ 8 July 1999

INTERNAL INQUIRY INTO BABY DEATHS

THE Health Professions Council will judge whether or not the two babies reported to have died in Coronation Hospital in Gauteng over the weekend, suffered neglect. The Gauteng health department is to conduct its own inquiry into the deaths, though it claims there was only one death. Despite the obvious shortage of resources, the department is now planning to help train hospitals, which are currently overspending, to stay within their budgets. Allegations of neglect at Gauteng hospitals are nothing new; last year an inquiry was conducted at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital after a senior doctor alleged that mismanagement and ill-qualified personnel were contributing to patient deaths.