It looks a corporate hospital, but it isn’t

With air-conditioned recovery rooms, soft toys, special food and more, the poor have it all at Gandhi Hospital’s paediatric wing. Very soon, the department would add a 34-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to provide further support to acutely malnourished infants.

Along with their mothers, a group of children, mostly below five years age and from poor backgrounds, play with colourful soft toys in a plush air-conditioned recovery room. In the background, nursery rhymes in English play from speakers attached to the corners of the room. At night and during nap time, soothing music is played as it is believed to aid faster recovery.

There are LED televisions in the recovery rooms, playing educational videos from paediatric specialists who teach mothers on how to take care of their infants. Standard food from the hospital canteen is not enough for malnourished infants – instead, there is a special kitchen in the corner to cook nutritious food for them.

And if you thought this was a facility run by some corporate hospital, Gandhi Hospital just proved you wrong. Every evening at the hospital’s paediatric wing – between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. – children recovering from ailments get to play with software professionals, who volunteer and spend quality time with the youngsters.

“We have come a long way from the days when Gandhi Hospital was near the Secunderabad railway station, when we used to operate our ICU from a dingy small room and our PG seats were not recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) because we lacked infrastructure. Today, in terms of facilities for the needy, we are on par with Niloufer Hospital,” says Head of the Paediatrics Department J. Venkateshwara Rao.

Coming soon

Very soon, the department would add a 34-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to provide further support to acutely malnourished infants. The department has NRHM-sponsored newborn care unit with ventilators and blue lights, under which over 50 infants who have jaundice are kept till they recover.

In July 2012, Gandhi Hospital became the first State-run hospital to provide Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre for severely malnourished children.

“Because of such facilities, now we have nine PG seats, all recognised by the MCI. Our bed strength has shot up from 60 to 120. Every month, we get anywhere between 200 and 250 admissions and at any point of time, we take care of at least 50 babies,” Dr. Venkateshwar Rao said.