BANGALORE : The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), along with the state government, will construct mother-child health (MCH) hospitals at 11 places in the state.
The proposed hospitals will have a capacity of 30, 60 or 100 beds. The hospitals will be set up in Yadgir, Gokak (Belgaum district), Santhemaranahalli (Chamarajanagar district), Mangalore (Dakshina Kannada district), Chintamani and Gowribidanur (Chikballapur district), Tiptur (Tumkur district), Sagar (Shimoga district), Nanjangud and KR Nagar (Mysore district), and Jayanagar in Bangalore.
While Nanjangud and KR Nagar will get a 30-bed hospital (`8 crore per hospital), Santhemaranahalli, Tiptur, Sagar and Chintamani will get a 60-bed hospital (`12 crore per hospital). At Bangalore, Yadgir, Gokak, Mangalore and Gowribidanur, 100-bed hospitals will be built (`14 crore per hospital). The decision to construct these hospitals was taken in 2012-13 to tackle the shortage of maternity beds in the district and sub-district hospitals and to increase institutional deliveries. They are being set up at places with a high delivery rate and facing a shortage of beds, said an NRHM source.
The hospitals will have outpatient wards, counselling rooms, labour rooms, operation theatres, antenatal, postnatal and paediatric wards, sick newborn care units, blood storage units, ultrasonography labs and obstetric ICUs.
They will also house an academic section, which will have a skill lab, a library and an accredited social health activist (ASHA) room. Quarters for doctors, nurses and Group D employees will also be constructed.
Each 100-bed hospital, on an average, will require eight to 14 doctors, 30 nurses, three lab-technicians, three X-ray technicians, 10-12 administrative staff and 15 Group D workers.
NRHM reproductive child health project director Dr Ramesh told Express that staff will be hired on a contractual basis.
“Every institution has a sanctioned number of posts. These will be filled by the government. If there are no takers for these posts, then we will hire staff on a contractual basis, especially doctors and nurses,” he said.
Ramesh said construction work at most of the sites has already started. “The foundation for all the hospitals, with the exception of Gokak, has been completed. The construction of MCH hospitals is likely to be completed by the end of 2015....Construction has to be completed by March 2016, which is the final date for completion,” he said.
