Nashik hospital to get 16 new beds

State Health Minister Deepak Sawant has announced 250 new beds for Special Newborn Care Units (SNCU) at 12 government hospitals in districts across the state including Nashik, Amravati and Chandrapur. The announcement came after the minister met with state health officials in Mumbai on Monday, a day after a team of experts visited the Nashik Civil Hospital (NCH) to investigate how 55 infants had died there in August after failing to receive adequate care.

At the meeting on Monday, it was decided that 16 new beds with incubators will be set up in NCH's SNCU within 15 days.

Dr Archana Patil, state's additional director of family welfare, said, "Currently, the hospital's SNCU has 18 incubators. On priority, 16 new beds with incubators will be set up."

The hospital has been allotted funds worth Rs 21 crore from the state for a neonatal care complex. "When the mother and child protection unit is ready, 28 more beds and incubators will be installed there," Patil said.

Dr Suresh Jagdale, civil surgeon at NCH, said, "The team of experts came here to analyse the matter." Asked about the progress of the care unit, he said: "We will get the civic body's permission to cut trees for the proposed building within a week. The process is under way."

Dr Patil said that staff from Mumbai's civic-run KEM Hospital will train the nurses at SNCU.

Shot in the arm

NCH got Rs 21 cr for a mother and child unit building and get medical equipment
In Aug, 55 infants died at SNCU because there weren’t enough incubators