PESHAWAR: The Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) has become the first tertiary care hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that established a dedicated Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for newborns. Until recently, neither the public nor private sector in the province had paediatric ICU that led to the death of several children. Earlier, a paediatrician, Dr Khalilur Rahman had set up a small well-equipped unit in University Town that provided intensive neonatal care services. Dr Khalil had an ambulance with a ventilator for transportation of seriously sick children. It apparently made the people ask that if an individual could set it up in limited resources what prevented the government from doing so. Though the Lady Reading Hospital and Khyber Teaching Hospital have bigger paediatric departments, the HMC took the lead in establishing the first intensive neonatal care unit. HMC Medical Director Dr Shahzad Akbar told The News that they knew it would cost a lot, but there was no option. “We have a well-equipped Paediatric Department at HMC, but it lacked intensive neonatal care services. A tertiary care hospital should have intensive neonatal care services,” he said. Dr Shahzad said that a portion of the paediatric unit was refurbished and separated into small units where new beds and equipment were installed. “We procured four ventilators for the intensive neonatal care unit. With the four beds, the number of beds in neonatal ICU has also increased,” he added. Finding doctors and nurses trained in neonatal intensive care is another challenge now. The hospital administration advertised positions of intensivists and nurses but nobody applied for the posts due to shortage of the doctors in this field. Prof Gohar Rahman, head of Paediatric Department, said that the establishment of the neonatal intensive care unit was badly needed as the newborns were referred to private hospitals, where treatment was very expensive. He credited members of the Board of Governors (BOG) particularly its chairman Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed with the establishment of the ICU for newborns. “This ICU has 45 beds, including four ventilation bays, 15 beds for high dependency neonatals, 10 incubator room for premature newborns, five beds for daycare neonats and 10 beds as cold room,” said Prof Gohar Rahman. He said the unit had a separate bay for exchange transfusion and neonatal procedures on a daily basis. He said the neonatal outpatient and ambulatory neonatal care unit would also remain functional on a daily basis. The unit is said to have been designed in line with international standards. Official sources said that the PC-1 was presented to the BoG chairman who approved the funds for infrastructure and equipment worth millions of rupees. The BoG approved two assistant professors in neonatology, five senior specialist registrars in neonatology, 15 nurses trained in intensive care, neonatal manager and auxiliary staff. According to the HMC administration, the unit is required to follow international guidelines in management of neonatal problems. Prof Gohar Rahman, who is also trained in NICU from the United Kingdom, is presently looking after the unit and has engaged neonatologists from Ireland and UK to join the unit as assistant professors. Dr Jamal has done MRCP from Ireland and worked as consultant neonatologist in the UK and Ireland will join the NICU in HMC in two weeks.
