TIRUCHY: The special newborn care unit (SNCU) at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) in Tiruchy has been awarded for being one of the best performing newborn units in Tamil Nadu. MGMGH won this award for the third consecutive year among more than 80 hospitals. The newborn care unit was ranked third in the state.
The award was given on 20th November by Health Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar on the eve of the national newborn week celebration held at Chennai.
The award was given on the basis of the number of babies successfully treated and for the achievement in saving babies weighing less than 1.5 kg and ventilated babies by the state child health nodal centre.
“This is the third consecutive year in which our unit has achieved the best performance in newborn care among units in the state. This is because of the good team work of doctors, staff nurses, paramedical workers and good administrative support. Especially during COVID and lockdown, the team has done a great job,” said Dr K Vanitha, Dean of MGMGH.
Dr Senthilkumar, SNCU nodal office, MGMGH, said that more than 5000 sick newborns were treated at the unit in the past year.
“While we treat babies born in our hospital, we’ve also treated 1500 babies from other hospitals. More than 1000 babies have been under ventilator and saved. We have treated several newborns who are less than 1.5 kg. In fact, the lowest weight baby we treated was delivered at 25 weeks and weighed 580 gms. We’ve also done neo-natal dialysis,” said Dr Senthil.
The team is also adept at helping babies with congenital heart disease. The Dean said they saved three babies at the right time by identifying high risk babies in need for treatment and sending them to other hospitals. 97% of high risk babies have been saved at this unit.
MGMGH does more than 10000 deliveries every year. More than 8000 high risk babies are on follow-up at the hospital for the past three years. The milk bank has given 4000 litres of milk to 1800 babies so far. 10 COVID positive babies have been treated and 325 babies were born to COVID positive mothers. 500 doses of pneumococcal vaccines have been given.
The team consists of 12 doctors, 19 staff nurses and 25 PGs.