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The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Bhaktapur District Hospital has been closed by the hospital administration before it completed its first month of operation.

The NICU of Bhaktapur Hospital, which came into operation for the first time after 119 years of the hospital’s establishment, was closed after the transfer of the Medical Superintendent.

The then Medical Superintendent of Bhaktapur Hospital, Dr. Sumitra Gautam had started a 20-bed NICU with ventilator from budget of the provincial government. The hospital administration has informed that the service was stopped after a week of the transfer of Dr. Gautam.

The hospital has been operating the maternity ward for years, but the ICU for newborns, which was set up with the aim of eliminating the need to refer patients to other hospitals due to lack of NICU, was closed immediately after the transfer of the Medical Superintendent said, the hospital staff.

The then medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr. Gautam said that a 20-bed NICU and another 16-bed ICU have been set up at Bhaktapur Hospital to end the misery that women in labour and babies of different ages suffered from.

She said that she was saddened to hear that the NICU service was shut down a few days after her transfer. She further added that the closed service should be resumed as the hospital has managed the human resource including six more nurses to operate the NICU.

Chief of the District Coordination Committee Bhaktapur and former Chairperson of the hospital Management Committee Nawaraj Gelal said that the closed NICU at Bhaktapur Hospital should be brought into operation immediately and referral of patients from the hospital to private hospitals should be stopped.

Medical Superintendent of Bhaktapur Hospital Dr. Shridhar Dhungel said that the service had to be stopped as the hospital had brought NICU operation without any preparation in the past.

Ramesh Giri