Chennai: Now parents of newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) can monitor the treatment of their child on LED TV screens being installed outside the NICU across the state. Nurses holding hand held cameras will film the baby’s care and it will be displayed on the screen outside.In the wake of death of 11 newborns at the Dharmapuri government hospital between November 14 and 18, a team of senior health officials visited the hospital and reviewed the situation there.
A senior official who was part of the team said, “Many parents complained that they could not see their newborns and that they even questioned the treatment they were undergoing. Soon, in a meeting we decided to install TVs outside the NICU and through hand-held camera, nurses inside the NICU will show the newborn and they will be displayed in the television.”
Dr S. Srinivasan, state nodal officer for NICU in government hospitals, said, “There are 64 NICUs functioning across the state and Chennai alone has five units. We have already installed TVs in Dharmapuri, Salem and Namakkal and in another few weeks all NICUs will have TVs and cameras.” National Rural Health Mission and the state government together will fund for this initiative that costs Rs 1.2 lakh for each NICU. “We will install 52 inch LED TV outside the NICU.
We have also made arrangements for counselling parents so that they know what kind of treatment their infants are undergoing inside the intensive care unit. To prevent infection, especially level 3 (high-risk babies) we are not allowing anyone inside the NICU. Through this initiative, not only parents, but also their relatives can see the babies,” said director of medical education Dr S. Geethalakshmi.
Apart from this, Institute of Child Health, Egmore, will soon get latest equipment worth Rs 1.7 crore for newborn surgeries. “We are remodeling second floor of new building inside the ICH. An eight-bedded high dependency care unit will be set up at a cost of Rs. 1.3 crore. This unit will exclusively deal with newborn surgeries,” informed Dr Srinivasan.
