Hyderabad: New hospitals for mother and child at Nims, Gandhi

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government would be starting Mother and Child Hospitals (MCH) especially for the pregnant women and their attendees for planned and hassle free deliveries.

These MCH hospitals would be coming up in Gandhi and Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). There would be 250 beds in the new block to be constructed in the NIMS and 200 beds in the Gandhi Hospital. This was announced by the Health Minister T Harish Rao while speaking in an awareness program on infection control in the Petlaburj Maternity Hospital on Monday. These hospitals were taken because of the availability of super specialty wings.

The Health Minister said that these hospitals would come in handy for the pregnant women who are nearing the delivery date. These hospitals would provide care for the critical patients. The State government has been taking several steps to ensure the maternal mortality rate comes down. "We are presently third after Kerala and Maharashtra and we should aim for better than these states," said Harish Rao. The MMR rate in Kerala was 19 per one lakh, in Maharashtra it is 33 per lakh. However in Telangana it is 43 per lakh.

The minister said that birth waiting rooms were also coming up in the hospitals like Bhadrachalam, Utnoor, Adilabad and Kothagudem. The deaths were reported because of a delay in bringing the women to the hospitals. The government asked the Asha workers to ensure they are sent to birth waiting rooms if the cases are critical. The birth plan should be decided in PHC. If the PHC doctor can do it efficiently, the deaths can be avoided. Some doctors are washing off their hands by referring the patients to bigger hospitals, said the minister. The minister asked the doctors to ensure a strong infection control system in the hospitals. He wanted the doctors, staff nurses to check for infection by going around the wards. Still some doctors are negligent in their duties, which should be avoided, he said. He asked the doctors to strive hard for ensuring less deaths.