A Special Care Neonatal Unit (SCNU) for newborn babies aged 1 to 28-day started its journey at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) on Friday morning.
UNICEF had supplied the medical instruments and the beds to furnish and operate the Neonatal unit of the hospital two-year ago.
RMCH sources, however, informed that due to absence and high voltage electricity connection and the Coronavirus pandemic the inauguration of SCNU was delayed. At last the unit was ready for operation on Wednesday and it was inaugurated by Brigadier General Shamim Yazdani, Director of RMCH on Friday.
RMCH Director Shahim Yazdani said, “The unit has been furnished with 40-bed for the treatment of neonatal babies. We have sufficient physicians and nurses and there is no problem in operating the unit.”
He further said the works for preparing the Neonatal ward started at the hospital two-year ago. But due to absence of required voltage of electricity, the ward cannot be made operational. The ward requires a huge voltage of electricity to operate the instruments of the ward. Later, a new 1000 KV electric line was connected at a cost of Tk 10 lakh. By that time the menace of Coronavirus pandemic forced the authorities of RMCH to delay the inauguration of the unit because the ward was being used to treat the Corona patients. Now, the pressure of Coronavirus patients being decreased, the SCNU has been made operational.
It is learnt UNICEF supplied 40 sophisticated beds and required instruments to open a Neonatal special care unit at RMCH in 2019. The unit will treat and deal with mainly the premature, underweight babies and babies aged 1 to 28-day old.
Chief of Pediatric Unit of RMCH Dr Belal Hossain informed, the treatment of babies at the SCNU is the best of its kind and each bed of the unit is an ICU and the cost of treatment at the unit is also like that of an ICU unit. He hoped the neonatal date rate would decrease further with the introduction of SCNU.
