BENGALURU: With the aim of improving neonatal care services in the state, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao launched Manipal Ambulance Response Service - Neonatal Care on Wheels (MARS-NOW) in Bengaluru on Friday. MARS-NOW was launched to provide comprehensive neonatal transport services in Bengaluru and its outskirts.
The ambulance will be facilitated with essential services such as infant incubators, heart and lung monitors, high frequency and conventional ventilators, nitric oxide administration, blanket warmers and advanced vehicle suspension for a smooth journey enhancing patient comfort. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) will help babies survive better, Rao said, adding that the government is open to working with the private sector to ensure the best treatment at the lowest prices possible. Manipal Hospital launched a helpline (080-22221111) service which other less facilitated private hospitals also can use, to transfer children via MARS-NOW.
The programme will expand as a hub and spoke model in Karnataka later extending services to government-run institutions too, Rao said. Doctors explained that the first few hours and days of a newborn’s life are critical, especially for pre-term babies or other medical conditions, and regular transportation could lead to new complications.
Timely action saves infant
A newborn baby suffering from intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), a condition wherein a baby does not grow to normal weight during pregnancy was transferred via MARS-NOW to Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road from another private hospital last year. The baby faced multiple health issues immediately after birth, including multi-system inflammatory syndrome with bleeding in the lungs and cardiac issues. Highlighting the need for tele-NICU, doctors said that the baby was already on ventilator support and would not have survived if it had not transferred properly.