Mainland hospitals have yet to implement a State Council order to provide free treatment to the babies who fell ill after drinking contaminated infant formula produced by Sanlu, a group of mainland lawyers offering free advice to victims said yesterday.
In calling for swift implementation of the order, the group also revealed that some early cases were not reported by local health authorities. If they had been reported, it might have raised the alarm earlier.
'We've received some cases in which babies developed kidney stones in Foshan , Guangxi's Wuzhou and Shunyi [in Beijing] as early as March, but at the time they did not get reported, so nobody tried to find out the causes for them,' said Li Fangping , the co-ordinator of the lawyers' group.
Mr Li pointed out that several hospitals contacted by affected families had said that they had 'not received the notice' about free medication despite the State Council's decision on Friday.
The incident has placed a huge burden on hospitals, according to the group's first work report published yesterday.
For example, more than 160 people queued at the renal department of Zhengzhou children's hospital within two hours of its opening yesterday, and it was expected to handle over 300 people in one day, the report quoted hospital staff as saying.
Within three days of the group's establishment on Friday, its member lawyers received more than 400 calls from affected parents, mostly about ways to seek treatment and compensation.
