Gone are the days when people preferred private hospitals over State-run ones for deliveries, mostly C-section. The trend has reversed with a steady rise in deliveries in government hospitals.
Thanks to the inauguration of 150-bed Mother and Child Health Centre (MCHC) on Civil Hospital premises in the heart of Karimnagar, the MCHC has recorded the highest number of deliveries in a government hospital outside Hyderabad. Before the MCHC began functioning, around 200 deliveries used to take place a month in the government civil hospital. Now, it has touched 800 deliveries a month.
A fully-equipped hospital, sufficient number of doctors and paramedical staff, introduction of midwifery course, distribution of KCR Kits, technical support from Fernandez Hospital, Hyderabad, to encourage normal deliveries and constant monitoring by Collector Sarfaraz Ahmad have resulted in MCHC being the most preferred hospital for deliveries in the State.
The number of out-patients at MCHC has increased from around 130 to 270 every day, while its in-patients range between 200 and 250 a day against the earlier count of about 110.
The centre has 15 obstetricians, five anaesthetists, 32 nurses, a separate lab with round-the-clock service, a radiologist, scanning rooms with three ultra-sound scanning machines and other facilities. Besides, it has seven labour rooms, three operation theatres, two adult ventilators, one paediatric ventilator, a neonatal care unit and seven wards. A room is charged a nominal cost of ₹500 a day. But both treatment and medicines are provided free of cost.
Earlier, patients had to shell out ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per delivery and extra money for medicine.
MCHC Administrator and former DM&HO Aleem told The Hindu on Friday that more number of people were availing medical assistance at the centre. “We are also according priority to normal deliveries which had come down drastically, with the support of Fernandez Hospital,” he said.
