Dr SN Bhure, NHM Mission Director, Chhattisgarh presented a case study on a strategic approach to quality mother and child healthcare by operationalising the SNCUs within the state. Dr Bhure began by informing the audience about the challenges they have faced in providing healthcare services in some remote areas of Chhattisgarh. He informed that there are around 6-7 lakh births every year in their state, out of which around 3.5 lakh deliveries are taken place in government hospitals. Nearly 15 per cent of these babies need early child care, that required around 1200 SNCU beds. After giving a background to how the state initiated this programme, he informed that this programme is executed by striking partnerships, where the state became the lead financial source to this programme. They roped in a Chennai based NGO – EKAM Foundation whose vision was in line with the vision of the state. “This NGO is doing a great job in the management of SNCUs. We have also roped in our medical college and our new AIIMS to make this programme effective and successful.”
Speaking about the progress of the programme, Dr Bhure said, “We started off with this programme in 2013 and today we have 18 SNCUs and by the end of this year we will have 25 SNCUs. With the help of the NGO, we are able to generate specialised nurses to care for these new borns. We are now having NGO admission of around 18,000. Today, we also have an online system that tracks the progress of our SNCUs. The results of which show that we have 115 per cent occupancy. There is a declining trend in mortality in new borns due to the operationalisation of the SNCUs. We are also trying to increase efficiency among our doctors, nurses and paramedic staff.”
Talking about their strategy for success, he went on, “Initially, we did not have an human resource department to deal with the shortage of talent to provide care at these SNCUs. Striking a partnership with EKAM has helped us to fix this issue. They took charge of the recruitment process and even helped us develop a department for us in the state. Today, HR department trains public health workers from other states as well. We have also engaged EKAM Foundation in the medical equipment management as SNCUs is very capital intensive unit and therefore it is imperative for an efficient equipment management and maintainence system. Another interesting aspect that we introduced was the micro-biological surveillance of all SNCUs and have developed a SOP for logistic management. We also look at aspects such as power and safety etc. All this has increased operational efficiency among our SNCUs, thereby leading to better new born child care in our state.”
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