15-bed neonatal ICU opened at city’s Chacha Nehru hospital

“There was a dire need to increase the capacity of our newborn care unit, because we get patients from Delhi, nearby areas and even from across the country as this is the only dedicated super-specialty hospital for children. Referrals come from different states when patients need critical care,” Das said.

Officials said CNBC is now the largest neonatal critical care unit in the city.

Established in 2003, the hospital provided services to over 2.3 lakh patients in the OPD and admitted about 17,000 patients last year.

According to hospital authorities, four-five newborns are admitted on an average each day in the NICU. Many of them are referred from private hospitals and nearby states.

In 2013, the old 20-bed NICU admitted 720 newborns. In 2014, around 937 newborns were treated and 643 were admitted.

Balvinder Kumar also announced that a new plot of land will be allotted to CNBC to further expand the hospital and add new treatment disciplines.

The 216-bed paediatric superspecialty hospital was the first public sector hospital in the country to achieve accreditation with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers.