UP govt to adopt BRD model for paediatric ICUs

These units are expected to be functional in all medical colleges and dist hospitals by June-July

LUCKNOW : The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to adopt the BRD Medical College model to set up paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in all 75 districts of the state to protect children from the Covid-19 infection in view of the Gorakhpurbased institution’s “pioneering role” in treating children afflicted with Japanese Encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) over the years.

Principal secretary (medical education) Alok Kumar said the medical education department was working to make PICUs functional in all the medical colleges and district hospitals by June-July.

Doctors and medical experts at BRD Medical College had been managing PICU, training doctors and nurses posted in other districts of east UP, he said.

Besides the BRD Medical College experts, doctors of King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and Institute of Medical Sciences-Banaras Hindu University (IMS-BHU) were roped in to train doctors and paramedical staff who will be posted in PICUs in the 75 districts, he said.

Medical experts have stated that children will be vulnerable to a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that is being apprehended in September-October.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the medical education and health department to set up 100-bed PICUs in all the medical colleges and government hospitals in the divisional headquarters. Twenty-five bed PICUs will be set up in the district hospitals, Alok Kumar said.

Experts of top institutes in the state have prepared the training curriculum for doctors and nurses. Doctors will be imparted four-day training and nurses will be trained over three days.

Arrangements for doctors,

nurses, paramedical staff, equipment, ventilator beds, oxygen beds, medicine and other resources to run the PICUs were being made on a war footing, the principal secretary said.

BRD Medical College principal Dr Ganesh Kumar said the medical college was running a 428-bed paediatrics ward, including 54 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and 70 beds for recovered children who required observation before discharge.

The medical college was also running neo-natal intensive care units, he said.

The BRD Medical College has urged medical education and health department officials to analyse all the resources in the 75 districts to run PICUs.

The data of infrastructure facilities, human resources, equipment and medicine will be available before starting the project, he said.

The BRD Medical College had focused on prevention of infection among patients admitted in PICU and the blood samples of all the children admitted there were tested fortnightly, Dr Ganesh Kumar said.

“The treatment and fever management of admitted children starts immediately after admission. We serve good quality diet to maintain immunity and regular sanitation is carried out in the wards,” he said.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier said the state government had been able to bring down encephalitis cases by 75% and the death rate by 95% among children. Paediatrician Dr Vijay Prakash said the next wave of Covid-19 was expected to have a greater effect on the paediatric population. The state government should hire the services of trained doctors and nurses to run PICUs, he suggested.

As parents were also getting infected, the state government should establish a separate ward or rooms in hospitals to augment support for the children admitted in PICUs, he said.