To ease out the pressure created by the inflow of large number of infants to the existing neonatology ICU wards of Niloufer Hospital, efforts are on to partially throw open the Rajiv intensive care block in another two months, which will add 200 additional beds only for infant care.
However, it will take another eight months or even a year for the new intensive care block to be fully operational following the recent recommendations from a team of experts from union government urging officials here to make additional changes to the structure of the intensive block. The team of experts from National Health Mission (NHM) had recently inspected the now completed intensive care building at Niloufer Hospital and recommended setting up an exclusive complex to cater to all the needs including labour, delivery and discharge of pregnant woman under one roof.
This facility of providing all services at one single place for expectant mothers is not available in the present intensive care block. “The union government has agreed to provide Rs. 8 crore to develop the complex for pregnant women. This new block will be coming up in the cellar of the intensive block. However, as a temporary relief, we want to make first floor operational for infants,” said Superintendent, Niloufer Hospital, Dr. K. Devaraj.
The present NICU wards of Niloufer Hospital has only 30 beds for infants needing special care due to premature deliveries and other health complications arising immediately after birth. According to hospital officials, at any point of time there are anywhere between 150 and 160 infants in the hospital’s NICU wards. The new intensive block with 200 NICU beds for infants could provide a huge relief to infants and their mothers, doctors observed.
At present, the civic works involving construction of the intensive care unit with a capacity of 450 beds, including 200 beds for infants, is complete. The total cost to construct the building was at around Rs. 45 crore, which was funded under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Medical equipment worth Rs. 15 crore is being procured by Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TMSIDC).
“We are still waiting for TMSIDC to complete the procurement process and provide us with internal Oxygen lines to ICUs, which is vital to save lives of infants. ,” Dr. Devaraj said.
