Paediatric units to come up in 36 districts of Bihar by March 2022

PATNA: With a view to tackling a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a superspecialty hospital for children in Patna and separate paediatric units will be set up in 36 districts of the state by March next year. The construction of mother and child care units is also underway in several Sadar hospitals.
The additional chief secretary of the health department, Pratyaya Amrit, told TOI on Wednesday that several initiatives were being taken to strengthen the health infrastructure for fighting the third Covid-19 wave. “While eight districts will have 32-bed paediatric units, the remaining 28 will get 42-bed units for children. All of them will also have eight high-dependency units and four intensive care units,” he said, adding, “These paediatric units, which will be constructed at a cost of Rs 136.4 crore, are expected to be ready by March next year.”
Last week chief minister Nitish Kumar had laid the foundation for various projects of the health department, including six mother and child healthcare centres on the premises of the Bhojpur, Samastipur, Chhapra, Sasaram and Bhagalpur Sadar hospitals and the Makhdumpur referral hospital. An administrative approval of Rs 90.48 crore has been given for these centres.
The health department has also given approval of Rs 15.21 crore for the construction of mother-neonatal ICUs at the Dumraon (Buxar), Barh (Patna), Sherghati (Gaya), Bagha (West Champaran), Hilsa (Nalanda), Rajgir (Nalanda), Barsoi (Katihar), Tarapur (Munger), Naugachia (Bhagalpur), Dalsinghsarai (Samastipur), Rosera (Samastipur), Sonepur (Saran) and Hathua (Gopalganj) divisional hospitals.
Amrit said, “Special training is being imparted to the healthcare workers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna so that they can manage critical patients well.”