Realising a shortage of doctors will continue to be a major hurdle to run neonatal care units in the state, the experts, who have developed the units in the districts to lower the newborn mortality rate, are now planning to train nursing staff to meet the crisis. Dr A Singh, head, neonatology department, SSKM hospital, who was actively involved in developing the state's own neonatal care unit model, known as Purulia model, said, "We have decided to train the nursing staff to meet the shortage of doctors in neonatal care units in the state. If nurses are given proper training they would be able to take care of sick newborns under the guidance of doctors. This has been proved in western countries. And crisis of doctors could be arrested in this way without comprising the quality of treatment.' The practitioner course for the nurses will be run at the neonatology department of SSKM hospital. "Actually there are a few doctors who like to work with the newborns voluntarily as it is not a lucrative work at all. If we can train nurses properly and give a boost to their confidence, we would be able to run neonatal care units with lesser number of doctors,' said Dr Singh. The state has developed neonatal intensive care units in a number of districts to take care of sick newborns. The first one of these units was developed in Purulia. The model was a cheaper version of costly neonatal intensive care units. These units are quipped with only life saving devices. The model was praised by international bodies like the UN. But the state had faced crisis of doctors to run the units properly from the very beginning. Now, the experts have expressed hope that the problem would be solved after the trained nurses are deployed in these units.