PATNA: Works have started for setting up an ultra-modern 100-bed Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar in the wake of over 141 deaths of children due to acute encephalitis syndrome in the past two-three months.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had announced setting up of a highly sophisticated paediatric ICU at SKMCH, which has to cope with a huge rush of children suffering from AES between March and June every year.
Confirming that the work had started, SKMCH superintendent Dr S K Shahi said the map work had been completed for the proposed unit that will have all necessary medical facilities required to save the lives of children admitted with AES symptoms.
At present, there are four ICUs at SKMCH with only 34 beds.
The SKMCH is also set to be upgraded to a super-speciality hospital with 2,500-bed capacity from the existing 610 beds in the next few years.