NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: While Noida and Ghaziabad are gearing up for a possible third Covid wave with a focus on preparations for children, there are very few paediatricians in both the districts.
The health departments have readied Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) beds in all Community Health Centres (CHCs) and other government hospitals and making other arrangements with another major outbreak in mind.
In Noida, however, there is just one paediatrician under the chief medical officer (CMO) and one under the chief medical superintendent (CMS) of the district hospital. The district requires at least 10 such doctors. “We send a revised checklist of our staff every week. We have one paediatrician in the district under me, who manages all CHCs and PHCs. We need more specialists. However, we have Child PGI for referring cases,” said CMO Dr Sunil Sharma.
Officials said that for all the government health centres, including the CHCs, one doctor needs to be on call while at least three others have to be posted at the centres. A total of four paediatricians are required under the CMO. Meanwhile, at the government hospital, two doctors are needed in every shift, taking the requirement to six. The district, therefore, needs 10 paediatricians to handle all government facilities adequately.
However, officials say that hardly any district in the state has 10 paediatricians deputed.
Since no specialist doctors are available, the districts are training regular medical officers and nurses in paediatric care. “We have trained at least one medical officer and one staff nurse from every government centre in specialised paediatric care,” said Dr Sharma.
There is a huge scarcity of paediatricians in Ghaziabad as well. There are two paediatricians each at District Combined Hospital and MMG District Hospital and seven at District Women Hospital. One is attached with the CMO’s office.
At present, a children Covid ward is reserved only at the District Combined Hospital, which serves as an L2 Covid facility whenever the need arises. The ward has 10 PICU beds, eight HDU beds and 10 oxygen beds. Besides, a 10-bed PICU ward has been readied at each of the four community health centres in Modinagar, Muradnagar, Loni and Dasna. None of them has any paediatricians. For running the PICU wards, each of these four medical facilities will need a minimum of three doctors to work in three shifts.
Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical officer of District Combined Hospital, said he had sent a requirement of five paediatricians and 25 staff nurses for the children ward. “We are still to get paediatricians. Based on a recent order of the state health department, a training in handing PICU ward was imparted to almost all staffers at the hospital,” he added.
The other two government hospitals — MMG and Women Hospital — are kept on standby.
Dr Anurag Bhargava, CMS of MMG District Hospital, said a 10-bed PICU ward would be ready within few hours if the need arises.
Dr Sangeeta Goyal, chief medical superintendent of Women’s Hospital, said, “Seven doctors are engaged in a special newborn care unit (SNCU) ward. We have been asked to remain on standby by the government, but a 10-bed Covid ward can be ready in an emergency.”
