A Study on the Current Status of Neonatal Transport to a Special Newborn Care Unit

Introduction: Neonatal care in India has witnessed a revolution in the last 10 years under the auspices of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The major causes of neonatal mortality in developing countries are Prematurity, Birth asphyxia and Sepsis. Institutional delivery and in utero transport of newborn is the safest way to transport a sick neonate. But unfortunately preterm delivery and many other perinatal illnesses cannot be always anticipated. Hence we undertook this study to analyse the profile of newborn babies referred to our SNCU. Study design: This is a cross sectional study of neonates admitted in SNCU of Govt Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital, Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu from April’2016 to June’2016. Results: About 75% of neonates were transported by neonatal ambulance service. About 25% of the neonates were transported by self arranged conveyance. On analysis of TOPS scores, about 26% of neonates had hypoglycemia, 14% had low oxygen saturation, 15% had prolonged capillary refill time and 19% had hypoglycemia. In the self arranged transport group, the TOPS score was significantly abnormal. During the study period 23(6.6%) neonates died. Conclusion: Though almost all the neonates are safely transported in neonatal ambulances in the government sector, there has been a paucity of neonatal ambulances in the private sector. Most of the available ambulances now are not adequately equipped to handle sick new born babies. So extension of neonatal ambulance services to all babies referred to SNCU will improve the survival of neonates.