The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Paediatric ICU at General Hospital becomes functional

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Wednesday, Apr 11, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Paediatric ICU at General Hospital becomes functional

Staff Reporter

Additional nurses posted at the facility

Thiruvananthapuram: The paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) and out-born nursery at General Hospital here, which was not functional owing to shortage of nurses, has finally become operational.

The unit received its first occupant on Saturday. On Monday, all five beds of the ICU were occupied, which is just an indication of the acute need for such services in major government hospitals.

The facility, set up at a cost of Rs.40 lakh, was opened in February 2006.

The ICU can manage all paediatric emergencies in children up to the age of 12 years. The six-bed out-born nursery is meant for care of high-risk newborns such as those with jaundice or septicaemia or pre-term babies born in the hospitals in the peripheral areas.

The neo-natal care unit at General Hospital was expected to ease the situation in SAT Hospital and Women and Child Hospital, Thycaud, which are the only other Government hospitals with facilities for neo-natal care. However, a paediatric intensive care unit requires trained nurses round the clock and General Hospital authorities had expressed their apprehension at the outset itself that they may not be able to dedicate staff for the new facility.

The facility was thus idling till now. The problem came up for discussion when Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy visited the hospital last month. The hospital authorities said that even though an ICU required a patient-nurse ratio of 1:1, they should be provided at least the minimum nursing staff to make the facility operational.

Following talks, it was decided that the hospital would be provided nine staff nurses under the Arogya Keralam initiative. Hospital superintendent M.K. Jeevan said six staff nurses, trained in paediatric ICU routine, had been posted at the ICU-neonatal facility to provide round the clock care.

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