The Hindu : Newborn nursery to be set up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 17, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kozhikode

Newborn nursery to be set up

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, JAN.16. At least a portion of the funds earmarked for the World Bank-aided Reproductive Child Health (RCH) Project would now be made available for the setting up of a superspecialty nursery for mothers and newborns at the Beach Hospital here.

Talking to here today, the RCH officer, M.Vijayan, said sanction had been received from the Centre to earmark funds to the tune of Rs.1.7 crores for building the proposed nursery. The nursery, a model initiative, would reportedly have state-of-the-art facility in the care and treatment of pregnant women and infants.

The RCH project funds would have gone lapse on March 31, if an alternative proposal for setting up the nursery had not been made. Repeated requests were made by the RCH functionaries to the Centre and the State Government before the sum was sanctioned.

The Health Minister, P. Sankaran, will inaugurate the work on the nursery being constructed on the Beach Hospital premises. Dr. Vijayan said while nine urban health centres (UHC) each catering to a population of 50,000 had been completed, of the 44 maternal child health sub-centres (10,000 population), land could be identified only for 27. The fund allocated for the remaining sub-centres will be utilised for setting up the maternal and infant nursery.

The Kozhikode Corporation was selected for the implementation of the Rs.10.30-crore WB-aided project in 1999, the only one of its kind in the State, and one among the four in the country. Viewed as a boon in the care of newborns and women, targetting an urban population of 4.5 lakhs, it was expected to bring within its fold a sizeable section with low immunity status, malnutrition, early marriage and pregnancy.

The project itself had faced rough weather when the Implementation Committee was reconstituted with the District Collector as chairperson after the United Front Government (UDF) assumed power.

With the LDF-ruled Corporation having majority in the committee, the implementation of the project itself was hanging in balance. Of the total fund earmarked for the project, a sum of Rs.2.5 crores has been received so far.

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Newborn nursery to be set up