Pune: Health minister Prakashrao Abitkar recently said he would look into the issue of 64 of 236 first referral units (FRUs) being defunct in the state due to a shortage of specialist doctors as well as infrastructural issues, and ensure these are made operational soon.FRUs are crucial health centres which provide 24-hour emergency and essential services under the maternal and child health programme in Maharashtra. However, approximately 27% of the centres are not functional, at present.Primarily, the centres handle high-risk deliveries, facilitate caesarean surgeries and provide specialised care for newborns. It is mandatory for every FRU to have a gynaecologist and obstetrician, an anaesthesiologist and a paediatrician available around the clock. However, a scarcity of specialist doctors has emerged as the main impediment in maintaining the facilities. Health department officials said that in some locations, ongoing construction works or non-functional operation theatres had led to closure.Abitkar was in Pune on Wednesday. He said, “Immediate action will be taken to appoint specialist doctors in FRUs, ensure all centres are fully operational, establish blood storage centres and coordinate with private hospitals. Protocols will be implemented strictly.”The public health department statistics said Nashik division at 24 had the highest number of closed FRUs. It was followed by Pune division at 8, Kolhapur at 7, Thane and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar at 6 each, Latur at 5, while Akola and Nagpur divisions each have 4 FRUs that are not operational.
