Inauguration

BGS Global Hospitals Launches Centre of Excellence for Paediatric Neurosciences

The hospital plans to treat 100 children with brain tumours free of cost in the coming months

BGS Global Hospitals launched its Centre of Excellence for Paediatric Neurosciences recently in the presence of eminent neurosurgeons from all over the world. The hospital's Paediatric Neurosciences facility offers quality care through state-of-the-art diagnostics, treatment and trained medical personnel. The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit has 20 beds equipped with incubators, ventilators, etc and is manned by trained paramedical staff — one nurse for every bed as well as paediatric instensivists.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr NK Venkataramana, Vice-Chairman and Neurosurgeon, BGS Global Hospitals said, "The paediatric population in India is growing, one third of the total population is children below 16 years. We need to take special care of the young. They are prone to host of diseases, congenital anomalies, vascular diseases injuries, epilepsy, tumours, genetic and metabolic diseases. Around 1.5 million suffer from congenital anomalies of the brain and spine in the country."

Dr Venkataramana added, "Hundred and eighteen paediatric neurosurgeries have so far been performed by the neurosurgeons at the hospital. As a corporate social responsibility initiative, BGS Global Hospitals, through the Dhanavantri Trust, plans to treat 100 children with brain tumours free of cost in the coming months."

The problem faced is lack of awareness of the diseases, accessibility to advanced infrastructure and trained neurosurgeons. There are only 1,200 neurosurgeons in the country. This figure is expected to grow to 1,500 in the next four years. However the actual requirement in our country is about 5,000 neurosurgeons. At present, there are only 50 - 60 paediatric neurosurgeons in the country.

A special international course to deal with paediatric neurosurgical problems has been designed and 12 eminent paediatric neurosurgeons from countries like the UK, the US, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Australia, Korea, Taiwan etc and six from India came to the hospital to train surgeons through discussions, demonstrations, interactions and video presentations. This is the first time that such a course — the Asian Australasian Advanced Course in Paediatric Neurosurgery is being organised in the country in association with Advanced Neuroscience Institute, BGS Global Hospitals.

Said Dr Christian Sainte Rose, Paediatric Neurosurgeon from France, "Children present a different clinical picture compared to adults. A small child can not express its pain and agony. It manifests in the form of irritability, failure to grow, mental subnormality, inability to walk and poor vision. Many of these symptoms can be missed in them and this leads to advanced stage of the disease. It is important that treating pediatricians should be educated to diagnose these conditions well in time and refer to a center equipped with advanced set up to deal with these children. Hence we should aim at early diagnosis and treatment in every child with such ailments."

EH News Bureau