KIMS gets Rs 1.5 crore NICU

To cater to the advanced healthcare requirements for the newborns, entrepreneur V.S.V. Prasad has built NICU (Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit)/ SNCU (Special Newborn Care Unit) at a cost of ₹1.5 crore at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and the hi-tech facility will be formally handed over to KIMS on Monday.

Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Saturday, director of KIMS S.F. Kammar said that the NICU/SNCU named ‘Swarna Shishu Dhama’ would be formally inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Praveen Pawar on Monday at 11.30 a.m. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, State Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil and others would participate in the event, he said.

Dr Kammar said that the new facility would help KIMS in meeting the advanced treatment requirements of outborn babies (babies that took birth in other hospitals) as KIMS acted as tertiary care unit for the North Karnataka region.

Speaking about the facilities at the NICU/SNCU, neonatologist D.H. Marthandappa said that the unit spread over 6,700 sq.ft had been equipped with all the hi-tech equipment and facilities which were available in private hi-tech hospitals. The 45-bed SNCU will be able to treat up to 200 outborn babies per month as it had already been provided with requisite staff and additional 15 personnel would soon be deployed, he said.

Dr Marthandappa said that Joshi had advised the then director Ramalingappa Antaratani and Deputy Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde to seek contribution to build the SNCU from Prasad who volunteered to fund the entire project in memory of his late father Chigurupati Mallikarjuna Rao.

Managing Director of Swarnaa Group of Companies V.S.V. Prasad said that he volunteered to build and hand the facility over to KIMS because he knew that civil works usually take longer time to complete under the government set-up. “We have made sure that high medical standards are maintained while creating the facility. It has jointless resilient sheet floor (medical grade); HEPA filter Central AC; segregation of babies room; international-quality equipment and a separate NICU dedicated for post-cardiac cases. Private hospitals charge in thousands for such facilities, but in KIMS it will be made available free of cost to the poorest of the poor”, he said. The Hindu