MOSCOW: A criminal investigation into patient deaths at a neuropsychiatric care home in Siberia has found that staff failed in their duties, Russian authorities said on Thursday, in the second health scandal to hit the region this month.
The state Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalized. At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation.
The care home is just outside the city of Novokuznetsk, where the deaths of nine newborn babies in the space of nine days shortly after the New Year sparked outrage across Russia and spurred a criminal investigation into negligence.
In the latest case, the Investigative Committee said staff were being questioned, medical records had been seized and forensic tests were under way to determine the cause of the infection’s spread.
The investigation is into “sanitary violations resulting in the deaths of patients.”
