Lucknow, Jul 25 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath government will soon add 352 Paediatrics Intensive Care Units (PICU) in 72 districts of the state to ensure better health facilities for children.

According to the government spokesman, around 53. 8 lakh babies are born in the state every year.

Of these, 50.9 lakh survive beyond five years while 2.8 lakh fail to reach this age.

With the establishment of these PICUs, the state government is also aiming to reduce the mortality rate of children below five years of age.

Presently, the state has 77 Sick Neonatal Care Units (SNCU) in the district level hospitals, 344 beds in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) in 12 medical colleges, and 160 PICU beds for children suffering from Acute Encephalitis (AES) and Japanese encephalitis (JE) in 16 district level hospitals.

With this addition, the number of PICUs in the state will reach 512 across the state.

These PICUs are already under construction and will come up in 88 government hospitals and medical institutions.

These units are being constructed under National Health Mission programme.

Each unit will have four beds with modern facilities and equipment and ventilators.

Officials said with this facility being available at the district level, children up to 12 years of age will get better treatment for serious health conditions like AES, JE, pneumonia, etc.

Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said: "The state government is constantly making efforts to provide better healthcare to children and continuous positive steps are being taken in this regard. We have instructed officials to expedite construction work of PICUs so that children suffering from serious diseases can get better treatment."