India, Jan. 21 -- Doctors at Odisha'sVimsar hospital say if primary healthcare improves, the death toll at bigger hospitals would be fewer

The lack of primary healthcare facilities leads to an increase in the number of infant deaths at bigger hospitals, a case study from Odisha shows.

Seventeen per cent of the infants (one year-olds) admitted to the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research (Vimsar) at Burla in Odisha's Sambalpur district in 2019, died.

Being a referral hospital, Vimsar is flooded with infants from the whole of western Odisha and even neighbouring Chhattisgarh. Many infants come to Vimsar upon the reference of doctors at peripheral hospitals, doctors said.

The physical system of such infants, mostly ...