Hospital for children gets vaccination skill corner in Kolkata – Times of India

Kolkata: A vaccination skill corner – Centre of Excellence was inaugurated at the Beliaghata campus of Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences (DBCRPGIPS) on Wednesday. An initiative by the state health department in collaboration with JHPIEGO- a John Hopkins affiliate, the latter will support the project with funds and technical assistance. The skill lab takes off as the world celebrated the Immunization Week in the last April week.
Inaugurated by director health services to the West Bengal government Dr Siddhartha Niyogi health officials said this vaccination skill corner will function as a training and resource centre with the focus on improving quality of vaccination procedure, standardization in services and strengthen AEFI (adverse effect following immunisation) surveillance and management. In addition to quality vaccination procedure the centre will provide hand on training to healthcare workers like nurses and medical officers on proper cold storage maintenance that ensures vaccine efficacy, post vaccination surveillance, referral and strengthening data reporting.
Dr. Sandip Samanta, MSVP, DBCRPGIPS acknowledged this initiative as a gateway for the hospital to pioneer in the field of immunization training and set exemplary ideals like they did previously to set up Sick Newborn Care units and Pediatric critical care units at the state and get recognized at national level.
State immunisation officer Dr Debasis Roy described the involvement of partners like Jhpiego as an extended hand to uplift the standards and appreciated the hard work put in by Dr Prabal Mukherjee (State program Officer, Jhpiego), Suparna Kundu (State technical Officer, Jhpiego) and Sumanta Biswal(Program Coordinator).
Others who attended the inauguration included Dr Dilip Kumar Paul DBCRPGIPS, Dr Nabanita Bhattacharjee, Principal Beleghata ID& BG Hospital along with district Immunization officials.
Health experts said immunization programs are the cornerstone of public health which currently averts an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), and measles every year in all age groups.