‘GMC’s 30-bed NICU will be ready in 15 days’

Panaji: Health minister Vishwajit Rane on Friday said the new 30-bedded neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at GMC will be ready within the next 15 days.

“We would get complaints from patients of unavailability of beds in the NICU. This was a long-pending demand. The ward was ready a long time back, but there were some technical issues,” Rane said.

The new NICU will be functional in addition to the existing 25-bed NICU ward on the same floor of the old GMC complex. “The new NICU will function as the main unit,” said GMC medical superintendent Dr Rajesh Patil. It willbe equipped with 15 ventilator beds and 15 CPAP beds, he said.

The new set up also has an isolation ward of six beds, besides a nursing room for mothers. “Fifteen nurses have been allocated to the new NICU and doctors will be recruited so that the neonates get the best treatment round the clock,” Dr Patil said.