Rattled by a high-rate of viral infections, where symptoms like fever and respiratory illness among children, are manifested, government has increased beds for paediatric care in different hospitals like Dr BC Roy Institute of Paediatric Science (DBCRIPS), premier state-run hospital for child care in the eastern region, Medical College Hospital (MCH) and Infectious Disease (ID) Hospital.

Besides the existing paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with 28 beds and 20- bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the DBCRIPS, the health department has earmarked a 72-bed ward at the Dr BC Roy Polio Hospital, the second campus of the institute at Beliaghata, to provide treatment for ailing children who are affected by either adenovirus or cough and breathing trouble. The new ward at the polio hospital has eight intensive care units (ICU) and 64 high dependency units (HDU).

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The health department has also set up an additional 50- bed unit in addition to the existing strength of 40 berths in the paediatric department of the MCH.

A paediatric unit of 50 beds has come up at the ID Hospital at Beliaghata.

But some senior officials at Swasthya Bhaban, dealing with sudden surge of adenovirus and viral infections causing spurt in hospital admissions, felt that increase in number of beds can’t only prevent deaths of babies if trained human resources personnel, including doctors, nurses and technicians required to run PICUs, NICUs and HDUs are not deployed at the respective hospitals.

For instance, one of the officials said, Dr BC Roy Institute of Paediatric Science crowded ailing children does not have adequate number of trained junior doctors, nurses and technicians to attend patients round-the-clock and operate paediatric ventilators, lifesaving devices required for critical patients with respiratory problems.

The health department has not yet given additional strength of junior doctors, nurses and technicians, though it has arranged to set up a 72-bed paediatric unit with 64 HDU and eight PICU beds respectively in the polio hospital. It’s learnt that the department has given only five more nurses for a 72- bed paediatric unit against a minimum requirement of 25. As a result, medical staff who are usually deployed for the PICU and NICU at the Dr BC Roy Institute of Paediatric Science are forced to attend emergency cases at the polio hospital’s HDU and PICU. Inadequate number of medical personnel delays taking prompt actions like connecting ventilators to gasping babies.

Similar situation prevails in the new set-up of the paediatric unit at the MCH.

Dr Arun Singh, head of neonatal unit of AIIMS in Jaipur said, “As per international standards, a 10-bed PICU requires basic infrastructure like eight high-flow oxygen devices, three paediatric ventilators, one infusion pump for each bed, four trained doctors and five nurses in every shift.”

Dr Debhashis Bhattacharya, director of medical education (DME), was not available for his commen