GMCH’s Maternity Care Project Awaits Approval

As per the scheme of central government, the proposal for separate building for maternity care at the GMCH may see a breakthrough during the ongoing monsoon assembly session. Kanan Yelikar, GMCH dean, however said that she was expecting a development in the proposed project last month. “But nothing has been done so far,” she said. The state-run hospital registered 18,000 deliveries and around 4000 caesareans in 2017. This figure is on a steady rise as the number of patients visiting the hospital includes those from the eight districts of Marathwada and the adjoining districts like Jalgaon and Ahmednagar. However, the infrastructure available with the hospital is very limited. The 4 gynaecology wards, 2 paediatric wards and a neo-natal ward of the hospital are bearing a massive patient load. Subsequently, the hospital provides services three and a half times more than its infrastructural capacity.

The hospital has proposed a separate six-storey building with 300 beds, which can cater to the care of mother and child care on the lines of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health program of the National Health Mission. According to Yelikar, the hospital has proposed a 72-crore project to the state government. The GMCH dean and local MLA Atul Save had discussed the proposal with the union health minister JP Nadda during his visit to the city on February.  The minister had expressed positivity about the project, officials at the GMCH said. Dinesh Baswal, deputy commissioner for central ministry of health & family welfare, who visited the hospital on May 30 had said that he will ensure that the proposal is expedited along with the provision of necessary equipment, manpower and resources to the hospital. A team led by Baswal had visited the hospital, studied the various initiatives being undertaken in the neonatology, obstetrics and gynaecology department including the implementation of respectful maternity charter. – TOI