The Government has directed all the 19 Government medical college hospitals in the State to establish counselling centres for pregnant women. This follows the recent spate of pre-term baby deaths in Dharmapuri and Salem Government Hospitals.
Further, all the 64 Neo-Natal Intensive Care Units (NICU) in Secondary and Tertiary healthcare centres, coming under the Directorates of Medical Education and Medical and Rural Health Services, have been ordered to install mobile cameras to transmit live images of the babies undergoing treatment. This is being done to allay the fears of the relatives and family of the babies.
S. Revwathy, Dean of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, the tertiary referral centre for several Western districts, told The Hindu on Thursday that doctors would explain the condition and treatment of babies four times a day at fixed timings. A public address system has also been installed at the NICU for this purpose.
The hospital recorded between 15 and 20 deliveries a day, with the monthly average ranging from 500 to 600. Around 10 to 15 caesarean sections were being performed daily with patients coming from several Western districts and even from border districts of Kerala.
The NICU at CMCH treated babies both born in the hospital and those referred from other hospitals. While babies categorised as Level I are treated alongside the mother, those in Level II and III are kept in isolation to prevent risk of infection. The hospital had already installed cameras and televisions at the Intensive Medical Care Unit, Trauma ICU and the labour ward.
“All patients undergoing treatment at Intensive Care Units would be in a critical condition, thereby causing anxious moments to their family members and relatives. We cannot let all of them into ICU as they posed a risk of infection,” she said.
This system would both allay their apprehensions and reduce the risk of transmission besides removing their doubts over treatment.
The counselling, which began on Wednesday, was being handled by doctors treating the baby, psychiatrists, paediatricians and nurses trained in counselling. Around 50 parents were being counselled a day, Dr. Revwathy said.
