Two hospital chiefs have been fired after eight babies at their facility died after contracting infections, the hospital's superior administration said Sunday.

Ma Aiqun was dismissed as the president of the No. 1 hospital affiliated with the College of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University in Shaanxi Province's capital.

Lu Yi, vice president of the hospital, was also removed from his post.

The decision was made by university management.

Neither Lu nor Ma reported the deaths of eight babies to heath authorities.

The babies died between Sept. 5 and 15 of a hospital-acquired infection as a result of lax management, inefficient execution of regulations and irresponsible medical staff.

The Communist Party chief of the university's medicine college, Li Xu, will be the acting president of the hospital.

Liu Li, the neonatology department director of the hospital, and Guo Xi'er, head nurse of the department, were also fired for dereliction of duty. Five other hospital officials in medical affairs, infection-control and medical care departments were also dismissed.

Doctors who treated the dead newborns were suspended from duty for investigation.

The university called upon all its three affiliated hospitals to note the medical safety accident to make sure it doesn't happen again.

In the meantime, a special team will supervise overhauls and reforms in the hospitals.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2008)