Department of Paediatrics and Neonatology

IMMUNISATION

The immunization department has been functioning since the inception of the hospital. The department functions between 2 to 4 pm on all days except Sundays. The immunization records are updated as per the Indian Academy of Pediatrics guidelines and offered to every patient who comes for immunization. All the newer vaccines are also made available for the patients. The parents are counselled after every vaccination regarding the minor side effects and a handout regarding the do’s and dont’s following vaccination is handed over. Catch up vaccination if any immunization is skipped is also advised. The vaccines are appropriately stored and dispensed by an experienced staff nurse. The vaccines are economically priced. We maintain a strict cold chain for the storage of vaccines we also promote adolescent immunization.

MINIMAL HANDLING, GOOD OUTCOME WITH AFFORDABLE COST

The hospital houses a well-equipped, Level 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This means that the NICU is extremely prepared to handle babies born at all gestational ages and offers prompt access to a wide range of pediatric multidisciplinary specialities while also providing respiratory and advanced imaging support.

Our NICU goes one step ahead and offers various intensive care services including neonatal transport using a dedicated NICU ambulance, conventional ventilation, total parenteral nutrition, central venous access, umbilical lines, invasive and non-invasive monitoring, double volume exchange transfusion, and phototherapy. In addition, multidisciplinary developmental follow up facilities, OAE, immunisation, well newborn outpatient services, resuscitation, lactation support and prenatal counselling are extended.

The NICU has 3 intensive care bays; Equipped with state of art equipment, the unit is managed by a team of dedicated consultants, trained neonatal nursing professionals and other support staff. With the survival of more than 95% among all admitted neonates which includes newborns up to 900 grams birth weight, the goal is to achieve world-class excellence in providing developmentally supportive care to the sickest and smallest of neonates

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

Development is a continuous process that occurs normally in children wherein skills are acquired in various developmental domains [motor, vision, language and social]. The prevalence of developmental delay in children is reported to be 1-3% worldwide. Denver Developmental Screening Test is used for developmental surveillance for children aged from birth to 6 years. Children who are identified with developmental delay are subjected to further assessment and intervention services are offered. Children who have motor, visual, hearing and speech impairments are offered physiotherapy, Formal vision and hearing evaluation and speech therapy.

Our General Pediatricians are experienced in identifying which child should be referred for further evaluation.

PEDIATRIC CLINICAL NUTRITION

The Department of Pediatric Clinical Nutrition accords recognition to the statement that “Children are not miniature adults”, acknowledges the express need to provide nutrition support to promote and maintain health as well to accelerate recovery and healing in the infirm child.
Malnutrition is common among hospitalized children but is often unrecognized and therefore not treated. Poor nutrition in infants and children not only has immediate consequences for health and well-being, growth, and development but can lead to long-term and intergenerational effects on health, reproduction, cognition, and chronic disease. This requires screening for nutritional risk, identification of patients who require nutritional support, provision of adequate nutritional management, education and training of hospital staff and audit of practice.
Besides the acute day to daycare management, the Department has also committed to evidence-based documentation, development and adaptation of nutrition management protocols and research as dictated by the local demands.
Besides oral and supplemental feeding, the department renders state-of-art feeding practices such as feeding through tubes placed in the stomach or intestine [enteral] and tubes placed directly into the bloodstreams [parenteral].

PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) equipped with 2 exclusive beds.

Facilities available include invasive monitoring, mechanical ventilation (non-invasive, conventional), and sedation for procedures. The ICU provides secondary level care to seriously ill children. Patients treated here include any critically ill child, with diseases such as severe asthma, serious infections (malaria, TB, meningitis, Dengue fever etc.), head injuries, etc.

PEDIATRIC SURGERY AND UROLOGY

It is a busy speciality offering advanced secondary care referral services and efficient day surgical care for routine and minor surgical problems. There is round the clock emergency on-call cover being provided by pediatric surgical on-call consultants. Surgeries are performed in well equipped, modern theatres with experienced pediatric anaesthetists for safe anaesthesia and surgery.

We offer round the clock management of surgical emergencies, including the non-surgical reduction of intussusception and management of pediatric trauma.