Siberian hospital where nine babies died within a week is ordered to close for three months

A court in Russia’s Kemerovo region, in western Siberia, has found a maternity hospital where nine babies died in the course of a week earlier this month guilty of failing to observe basic sanitary norms, it was announced on Monday.

A representative from the Kurbatov City Clinical Hospital No. 1 in the city of Novokuznetsk pleaded guilty to the charge and the hospital was ordered to suspend all operations for the next 90 days. Working practices at the hospital were found to have “revealed failures to ensure compliance with sanitary legislation and health and safety measures”.

Of the some 234 children who were born in the hospital since the start of December, 32 had to be placed in intensive care. According to the Investigative Committee, nine children died between 4 and 12 January, while another eight remain in an extremely serious condition. The official cause of death of the nine children who died was given as intrauterine infection.

Vitaly Kheraskov, the hospital’s chief doctor, was placed under house arrest on 14 January, while the acting head of the Intensive Care Department Alexey Emikh was banned from carrying out certain procedures. Both men are being investigated on suspicion of negligence and causing death “due to the improper conduct of their official and professional duties”.