Department of Paediatrics

VISION, MISSION AND VALUES OF THE DEPARTMENT

Vision

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Pediatrics was established in 1964 and upgraded to a fifty-bedded children’s ward and nursery in 1970. The nursery grew into a Neonatology Unit in 1986 with facilities for care of critically ill newborns. A new 10-bedded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was established on 15^th August, 2001 initially with basic facilities for ventilation. This was later upgraded to a separate infrastructure for a 20-bedded NICU complete with ventilation and monitoring facilities, in the new OBG and Cardiac block. Since 2010 this unit has also contributed as a resource centre for training of medical officers in neonatal care. With the construction of two new pediatric wards in 1997, the bed-strength of the department increased from 50 to 90 which was later scaled up to the current bed-strength of 120. A pediatric high-dependency unit was upgraded to a 6-bedded "Pediatric Intensive Care Unit" (PICU) in the existing pediatric wards in 2005. The PICU has all the latest facilities for intensive monitoring and ventilation. Pediatric emergencies are managed in a 6-bedded Pediatric Emergency section located in the hospital Trauma and Emergency Center. Diarrhea Treatment and Training Unit (DTTU) was established in 1991 with an initial grant from the World Health Organization; eight beds were assigned for this unit. "Pediatric Gastro-Enterology, Hepatology & Nutrition Clinic" and facility for upper G.I. Endoscopy started functioning in 1999. 

An eight-bedded Malnutrition Treatment Unit was established with financial aid from UNICEF for the management of children with severe acute malnutrition. This unit was renamed as Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre with funding by NHM. Subsequently it was upgraded as a Resource Center for Facility Based management of children with severe acute malnutrition. The centre played a pivotal role in training medical and paramedical health care staff of different districts in Uttar Pradesh. 

Under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK) of the National Health Mission, Government of India, a District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) was established in 2018 with dedicated infrastructure and support staff. This centre provides free comprehensive treatment to children referred from various parts of Uttar Pradesh with funding from NHM, UP government. A dedicated Pediatric Cardiac Evaluation and Cardiac Surgery (PCE-CS) unit became operational under the RBSK, NHM and has been successfully providing free cardiac procedures for children since 2019.