Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) might soon have a neo-natal care training centre, a first for any government hospital in the state.

The centre — a Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) that falls under National Rural Health Mission — would train doctors and paramedics to handle critical health conditions of newborns. Experts have welcomed the decision given the state’s high infant mortality rate of 44 (44 out of every 1,000 newborn babies die before they turn a year old in Bihar).

“Though less than the national average (47), the infant mortality rate is very high and the state has set a target to bring it down to 34 by end of 2017,” said Arun Kumar Thakur, head of the paediatrics department at NMCH.

Institutional delivery is low in Bihar. Even today, 46 per cent of newborns are delivered at home. Those who go for institutional delivery do not find trained paramedics who can handle critical situations.

Since doctors can’t be in hospital all the time, it’s important to have trained paramedics who can care for newborns during critical conditions. Experts say many newborns often suffer from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (in which brain does not get enough oxygen), hypothermia (where body temperature drops drastically) among others that require special attention.

“Though almost all government hospitals, including PMCH and NMCH, have dedicated ICUs for newborns, none of them have neo-natal training centres,” said Dr Arun Kumar Thakur.

“A NIPI team, including its country director Kaliprasad Pappu and medical adviser, UN, NIPI, Dr Harish Kumar, was visiting NMCH two days ago. Impressed with the facilities at the 24-bed newborn ICU at NMCH, it chose to set up a neo-natal care training centre here. NIPI aims to strengthen neo-natal care services in Nalanda, Jehanabad and Sheikhpura districts. Once we train doctors and paramedics there, we can train them in other districts too,” said Thakur.

Thakur could not say by when the facility would be operational. “We are going to send a detailed project report to the Union government and they would forward it to NIPI after which NIPI would provide us grants for necessary infrastructure. I cannot say how much time all this will take,” Thakur said. Asked what equipment NMCH would be seeking funds for, Thakur said, “We would seek funds to buy world-class ventilators which cost around Rs 18 lakh and analysers which cost around Rs 9 lakh.”