More ventilators to be added in public hospitals by June
In a bid to improve the neonatal care in the public hospitals, soon the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to procure more ventilators in all the hospitals. A senior civic official said by June this year more 280 ventilators will be added in the neonatal wards of the hospital to prevent the premature babies.
The doctors said often the babies are born prematurely due to which they have underdeveloped lungs which leads to breathing problem for which they need a ventilator.
Currently they are 900 Intensive Care Units but only 450 of them have ventilators associated with it. “According to the policy, we should try and have a ventilator for each bed as around 15 per cent of premature baby needs ventilator supports for which there is a need if extra ventilators” said Dr Avinash Supe, Director of civic hospitals
As per the statistics, India records the maximum number of neonatal deaths in the world, a reason why NICU facilities need improvement. “Every year nearly six lakh new-born’s die in India and in Maharashtra, the child mortality rate is nearly 24 per 1000 birth out of them, two-thirds are premature born babies,” said Dr Bhupendra Avasthi.
He further added mothers who become pregnant through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) had high chances of delivering preterm babies. “There are high chances of twins and triplets though IVF. It is noted that a mother bearing twins and triplets has is likely to deliver them prematurely,” he added.
Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital, Parel, which is run by a private medical trust, added 20 new ventilators on Tuesday, taking the total number to 70. The new ventilators will be available to children at subsidised rates, said Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, chief executive officer of Wadia Hospitals. “Despite having one of the largest neonatal intensive care unit facilities in the country, we cope with the challenges owing to lack of ventilators. We get sick babies from across Maharashtra, and many other states for critical care treatment,” she said.