Labour suites will be opened in 11 government hospitals in the district, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.
The Sree Avittom Thirunal Hospital (SAT Hospital) would soon get a seven-storey mother and child centre, a Rs.80-crore project. The 100-bed maternity block of the project was expected to be commissioned in February next year, he said. Mr. Sivakumar was inaugurating the SAT Hospital’s annual day celebrations here on Saturday.
A centralised diagnostic facility with MRI, CT, and ultrasound scan facilities would be started at the hospital.
A 40-bed new pay-ward would be built alongside the KHRWS deluxe pay-wards at the hospital, Mr. Sivakumar said. He also inaugurated the ‘Ammakkoru koottu’ or the labour companion project at the hospital.
Under the scheme, high-risk obstetric cases, wherein women may have to undergo long, complicated or stressful labour, can choose to have a companion inside the labour room in the hospital. This is the first time in the State that such a facility was being offered in a government hospital.
Ambulance services
Mr. Sivakumar said the government intended to augment the ambulance and emergency network facilities in the State.
The government would purchase 287 Janani Suraksha ambulances for government hospitals across the State, to be specifically utilised to transport pregnant women to hospitals and to take them back home with the baby, under the Janani- Sishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK). Another 280 ambulances were also being purchased for operation across the State under the 108 emergency ambulance project.
The Minister announced that the new multidisciplinary ICU at the medical college hospital would be opened by 2016 June. Steps were also being taken to start classes in the next academic year itself at the ESI Hospital and Medical College, which had been taken over by the government.
A.T. George, MLA, was the chief guest on the occasion. Medical College Principal Ramdas Pisharody presided over the function. SAT Hospital Superintendent K.E. Elizabeth; Medical College Superintendent K. Mohandas; Head of Neonatology Sobha Kumar; KHRWS Managing Director, K.R. Hareendrakumar; and ward councillor G. S. Sreekumar, among others, spoke.
