Paediatrics & Neonatology

Antenatal Clinic to Deal with Foetal Abnormalities

Neonatology is a sub-speciality of paediatrics that deals with children from birth until one month of age. In the last decade or so, this speciality has emerged as a separate entity from the other areas of child healthcare and has gained enormous momentum all over the country. This is mostly because the diseases and their treatment in this age group are very different from those of older children. Care for such sick new-borns is best provided in an infrastructure which is particularly designed and created for keeping new-borns in mind, by a committed team of physicians who are specially trained in the science of new-borns, both in India and overseas.

Medica Superspecialty Hospital opens the doors to its state-of-the-art NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) to the new-borns of Kolkata, Eastern India, and the rest of the country. The NICU houses 20 beds with all modern gadgets like conventional ventilators, high-frequency oscillators (HFO), inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), total parenteral nutrition (TPN), pneumatic chute, and so on in an ambience which is very soothing and comforting to distressed families.

New-borns warrant intensive care & monitoring in NICU if they suffer from the following:

• Born too soon (premature babies)
• Born too small (small for age babies)
• Born with birth a defect in the brain, spine, heart, lungs, kidney, and abdomen
• Failure to cry after birth (deprivation of blood and/or oxygen supply before, during, or after birth)
• Dullness and refusal to feed (infection)
• Breathing difficulty (premature lungs, pneumonia, and meconium aspiration)
• Blue baby (cardiac disease and PPHN)
• Miscellaneous disorders

Facilities available for Neonatal Intensive Care

NICU is conveniently located on the 2nd floor of the hospital which also has the labour room and the operation theatre. This makes the movement of new-born babies requiring intensive care and/or monitoring much easier. The area admits babies requiring all levels of care (SCBU, NICU, and so on) and is divided into four different sections to segregate new-born babies from those who carry infection. Minute details have been paid due attention in designing this place so that quality and safety meet aesthetics and comfort.

Specialised Team

Your tiny one gets round-the-clock care by a team of dedicated professionals (best child specialist in kolkata, registrars, nurse in-charge, other nurses, secretary, counsellor, and so on). Every member of the team is experienced in taking care of new-borns with critical illnesses. Both the parents and referring physician get daily updates by the consultant in charge of the child’s progress.

Highlights

• Technological and human excellence in saving the lives of new-borns
• Direct supervision of full-time senior consultant Neonatologist – Paediatrician specially trained in the care of new-borns
• Clear communication with parents with complete transparency and accountability
• A daily counselling session with parents
• 24×7 access to new-borns for mothers
• Antenatal clinic for parents to deal with foetal abnormalities detected on USG
• Consultation with a foetal medicine expert
• High-risk follow-up clinic for NICU graduates

Neonatal Transport Services

A significant number of out-born new-borns (i.e., those born in other maternity homes or hospitals) require to be transferred urgently to a tertiary care centre, often because of medical, surgical, or rapidly emerging postpartum problems. Safe and timely inter-facility transport has been shown to improve outcomes for the smallest and most critically ill neonates. Medical transport of such a high-risk and critically-ill population requires skilled personnel and specialized equipment.

We transport sick newborns with utmost care and compassion, using a composite transport unit or ‘mobile NICU bed’ which basically comprises of a transport incubator, transport ventilator, cardiac monitor, syringe pumps, emergency resuscitation, and medicinal kit. Upon request by the referring physician (obstetrician or paediatrician), our transport team (qualified paediatrician and nurse) reaches the place of delivery in the shortest possible time, stabilizes the infant, reports to the senior child specialist in Kolkata at Medica Hospital and transports the infant in a safe and cozy environment.

All these come at a cost affordable by all communities and strata.