Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 12:03 PM IST

  Metros   Mumbai  12 Jun 2018  16 hospitals to get neonatal ventilators

16 hospitals to get neonatal ventilators

THE ASIAN AGE.
Published : Jun 12, 2018, 5:59 am IST
Updated : Jun 12, 2018, 5:59 am IST

here is a huge gap between demand and supply in regard to neonatal ventilators.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

Mumbai: Sixteen neonatal ventilators will be provided to all major civic-run hospitals. The ventilators will be provided to KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper Hospital, and this service will be provided to common people at affordable rates.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) health department has noted that there were a number of cases related to pre-mature babies who required a ventilator to help them breathe. There is a huge gap between demand and supply in regard to neonatal ventilators. So since there are cases noted by the department, the BMC has decided to purchase 16 neonatal ventilators.

Talking to The Asian Age, Dr Avinash Supe, director of all major civic-run hospitals said, “There were few cases where we could not admit babies and send them for better paediatric care due to lack of neonatal ventilators. Taking note of such instances, we have decided to get 16 neonatal ventilators in major civic-run hospitals to strengthen our paediatric medical system.”

Dr Jayashree Mondkar, dean of Sion Hospital, said, “Babies who are born prematurely or have birth defects often have underdeveloped organs such as lungs and have trouble breathing because of which they need ventilators.”

She added, “Around 15 per cent of prematurely born children, who are born with ailments, require ventilator support and around six lakh newborns die in India every year. In Maharashtra, the child mortality rate is nearly 24 per 1,000 births. Of them, two-thirds are premature babies.”

Tags: brihanmumbai municipal corporation, neonatal ventilators