|
|
| Centers of Excellence - Pediatrics |
|
|
 |
“At the end of the day, a smile on the face of a baby, recovering after surgery, is all that matters. It's our duty to the society.” ----Dr. Devi Shetty
Dr Ashley’s address
“Dr. Devi Shetty and I envision a stand-alone children's hospital of 500 beds located in the Narayana Hrudayalaya campus in Bangalore in the next 2-3 years. We hope to replicate this in Kolkata in the same time frame. Your support to our commitment of providing quality healthcare to every child, specially the under-privileged, will be deeply appreciated. Apart from developing outreach programs and research pertinent to this, we are looking to develop the largest database for pediatric disease. And perhaps, find new avenues for treatment. Community and developmental pediatrics will be a major thrust area here, apart from our delivery of cutting edge in- hospital care. Dr. Ashley J D'Cruz
Director, Sr Consultant Pediatric Surgeon/ Urologist The Problem - Majority of children have little access to quality healthcare Karnataka has over 15.7 million children aged 0-6 years. Here, the Infant Mortality Rate is estimated at 52 infant deaths per 1000 live births, and the Under-5 Mortality Rate at 70 per 1000. Almost 40% of children in the age 1-2 years of age have not been fully vaccinated as prescribed by the National Immunisation program. This state of health of children is reflected in the large numbers of children requiring hospital-based care, out-patient or in-patient. Add to this the tragedy, that most of these belong to parents who cannot easily afford to pay medical bills.
The Problem - Majority of children have little access to quality healthcare
The care of children in a hospital ideally requires that the entire service is designed with the child in mind. When a child becomes a patient, the process of emotional and physical growth and development continues, unlike an adult who can switch easily between environments. Which is why, it's very important that the hospital aids this growth and healing process together, where the child is cared for by people trained in the right skills
Narayana Hrudayalaya Children’s hospital will not only have all services under one roof, but will have medical staff specially trained and sensitized to the care of children, personalising it where needed.
The Hospital – Pediatric Services
At present, we have started the neonatal surgery, pediatric surgery and pediatric urology services. In addition one pediatric intensive care unit of 20 beds with all support equipment and staff is operational. This is in addition to the extensive infrastructure available for the cardiac and cardiac surgery services.
Our aim is this: all neonates or infants who come to us with a problem will be offered high quality comprehensive care at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Children’s Hospital regardless of whether they can afford it or not. We are acutely aware that very often these problems befall young parents, often just married, who cannot afford these specialized treatments. Finally, the direction of health care in our country is moving towards cost effectiveness, good clinical standards, and strict accountability both in quality and in cost. We are confident of putting in place the infrastructure and trained personnel to meet these high
RARE CASE
The story of AKS (name concealed) is a good example of the inequities in our health system. He was born with a serious malformation of his urinary bladder and genitals called bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex. For 32 years he leaked urine into his underclothes and lived as a social outcast. He could not be married because his genitals were so malformed that he dreaded exposing this fact to anyone, let alone a partner. He survived as a petty shop owner and with this meager income approached many medical centers for help. Unfortunately, there were no specialists available in his home state of Orrisa willing to take on such a serious malformation. He finally approached a tertiary referral center in Mysore from where he was referred to the pediatric urology service at Narayana Hrudayalaya. |
|
|
|
|
