As Ghaziabad plans paediatric ICUs, staff shortage looms large

Ghaziabad: Amid the efforts to set up paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) at different health-care facilities by June 20, the district health officials said that they are facing a shortage of specialist doctors and paramedical staff to operate the children’s wards

Ghaziabad: Amid the efforts to set up paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) at different health-care facilities by June 20, the district health officials said that they are facing a shortage of specialist doctors and paramedical staff to operate the children’s wards.

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The health department has planned for about 300 PICU beds across the district, the officials said. While 10 PICU beds have come up at the Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital, another 50-bed dedicated facility for children will come up at a private hospital on the Delhi-Meerut Road.

“We have set up a 10-bed PICU facility at our hospital. But we face a shortage of specialists. We have two paediatricians while a demand has been raised for three more. We have also asked the district chief medical officer for one technician and three nurses for the operation of the PICU,” said Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of Sanjay Nagar hospital.

As per the recent directions of the UP government, ICUs should come up for children by June 20 to deal with any likely third wave of Covid-19. The government officials have estimated that a 10-bed PICU requires a team of 34 staff members, including paediatricians, nurses, physiotherapists and technicians.

The officials of the district health department said that they tried to hire some staff on contractual basis but only few candidates arrived for an interview.

“For the Sanjay Nagar hospital, we have also raised a demand for 12 OT technicians and three critical care technicians for the PICU ward. We have written to the National Health Mission (UP) about our requirements,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.

“We have put on hold the creation of 20 PICU beds at District Women’ Hospital for now, while a gap analysis has been done for the proposed 50-bed paediatric facility at a private hospital on the Delhi-Meerut Road and the requirements sent to NHM (UP),” said Gupta.

The gap analysis for the Delhi-Meerut Road facility was conducted on various parameters, including equipment, manpower and requirement of consumables, among others. The health department plans to acquire the private hospital, which will be operated as the city’s first dedicated child hospital,” the officials said.

The analysis has found that the hospital requires at least two anaesthetists and 18 trained ICU nurses, besides equipment like oxygen cylinders, high-flow nasal cannula, BiPap machines and universal ventilators.

According to the officials, 30 PICU beds, along with 50 isolation beds for children, are also complete at the government-acquired Santosh Medical College. “Besides, 20 more PICU beds are proposed at Santosh Medical College. So, the tally at the medical college will be 100 as directed by the government,” the CMO said.

Gupta also said that we have asked some private hospitals to reserve 10% of their beds for children.

The UP government has already directed that at least 100 PICU/NICU (new-natal ICU) beds should come up at all medical colleges and another set of 25-30 PICU/NICU beds are to be created at district hospitals.

Experts said that initiating PICUs is not a simple job as it requires roping in specialists, highly trained staff, variety of equipment and consumables. “The IMA is also waiting for certain modules from the UP government about the PICUs, and thereafter we will help government staff get training. About converting the 50-bed hospital at Meerut Road into a paediatric hospital, we estimate that considering all requirements, it will take another couple of months for making it operational,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad).