ICU in Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, June 10: The critical patients will now have better healthcare facility in the government sector with setting up of the intensive care units (ICUs) in four district headquarter hospitals across Orissa.

While a five-bed ICU will be set up at Puri district headquarter hospital, three such facilities with a provision of six beds each will be put in place at the district hospitals in Koraput, Balasore and Baripada.

Moreover, the existing ICU at the Capital Hospital will be expanded to a 16-bed facility. At present, there are eight beds in the ICU at this hospital.

A sum of Rs 13.99 crore had been sanctioned for the installation and expansion of ICU facilities, a senior official said.

The decision was taken at a meet of the Orissa State Health and Family Welfare Society, chaired by chief secretary Bijay Patnaik here yesterday.

Patnaik also instructed the health department officials to prepare a proposal for preventive and annual repair of equipment installed at different hospitals across Orissa. The health officials were also asked to develop a software for online monitoring of health projects.

The chief secretary advised the officials to take necessary steps so that every gram panchayat will have at least one health sub-centre.

For quicker transmission of information on health scenario at village-level, around 13,200 health workers have been connected through “closer-use-group mobile connectivity”.

The welfare society decided to supply mobile SIM cards to 42,816 accredited social health activists (ASHAs) working at the grassroot-level.

It was also decided to set up additional 124 newborn centres and 11 newborn care units at various government hospitals for ensuring better neo-natal care.

With the establishment of these facilities, the number of newborn centres and newborn care units will go up to 576 and 24, respectively.

Safe delivery and newborn care are some of the major thrust areas of the Orissa government as the infant mortality rate is high at the time of delivery and during the first one month of the delivery. The incidence of infant and maternal mortality is highest in Orissa.

In this context, the newborn centres and the newborn care units have been established to prevent infant mortality at the neo-natal stage.

“The Orissa government has also introduced Janani Expresses (vehicles to carry expectant mothers to nearby hospitals) to encourage institutional delivery. The welfare society decided to extend the transport service to secondary and tertiary referral centres. An additional 58 Janani Expresses were sanctioned, taking the fleet strength to 372,” said a senior officer of the health department..

The Orissa government had earlier decided to provide bicycle to all the social activists. A number of 35,096 activists have already been provided with bicycles. It was decided to provide the bicycles to the rest 7,720 during the current financial year and a sum of Rs 2.31 crore was sanctioned for the purpose, said a senior official.