Be it cutting edge techniques that helped reduce epileptic fits in a young
child or state of the art neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the B
J Wadia Children’s Hospital in Mumbai consistently sets high
benchmarks, be it in high quality, affordable care or service delivery
programs.
No wonder that India’s largest paediatric hospital has been
honoured with the award for Best Hospital in Asia. When it comes
to services for children with disabilities, Wadia Hospital has shown the way
to others.
“The Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital was set up in 1928 and some of our clinics
catering to children with disabilities have been established since then”,
says Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals. “We offer
a wide spectrum of services for children with disabilities and our approach
is holistic, wherein we work towards catering to their healthcare needs under
one roof.”
The care offered is wide based and comprehensive, bringing together the best
in various departments like orthopaedics, neurology, ophthalmology, ENT,
nutrition, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and audiology. This is
supported by other clinical services and diagnostic services.
All of this is available to children under one roof, which is quite
invaluable points out, Dr Dipti Hanmante Gandhi,
Founder, Muskan Foundation. The foundation, which works with
children with multiple disabilities, runs the Disability Centre
at the Wadia Hospital. It also runs a school in partnership with the hospital
for empowering children with disabilities.
“We see 10 new patients every week and many of them are children from poor
families from across rural India”, says Dr Gandhi. “All the therapies
needed are offered under one roof and for just Rs 100, which is truly
rare”.
There are patients who come in with a range of disabilities like club foot,
knock knees, cerebral palsy, childhood bone tumours as well as developmental
disorders. Conditions that require a range of therapies and treatments, often
over a period of time, which makes access to services under one roof
invaluable. This is especially true for patients outside Mumbai, who have to
factor in issues like treatment follow up, costs incurred on travel as well
as stay.
“The hospital helps them with timely and expert treatment, social service
network, and a referral multi-speciality approach under one roof”, says
Dr Rujuta Mehta, Head, Orthopaedic
Department, at Wadia Hospital.
What is remarkable is that these services were launched at a time when
awareness and sensitization about disabilities was quite low. A foresight
that Dr Bodhanwala attributes to the founders.
It is the vision of the founders of the Wadia family, who understood nine
decades back that children are not mini-adults and need specialised care
and established the first paediatric hospital in the country. You often see
that many hospitals do not cater to children with special needs as the
services yield less margins for them, but when it comes to us we are only
focused on benefitting the community rather than benefiting from it. –
Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals
While awareness has improved, there are still many challenges doctors here
face during treatment. Emphasising the importance of early intervention,
Dr Shilpa Kulkarni, Department Head, Paediatric
Neurosciences, says treatment must start before the disability is
evident. However, the reality is often different. “Babies get discharged
from ICU and parents do not follow up regularly so the benefits of early
intervention are lost. People wait till they see the symptoms which leads to
loss of precious time of brain plasticity. Also people are not regular in
therapy . We need to increase awareness about the early intervention”, says
Dr Kulkarni.
Apart from improving awareness among patients and their families, Wadia
Hospital also plays a larger community role to build sensitization through
annual events like Little Hearts where kids with disabilities
run along with other children. This year the marathon will be held on 27
January.
From offering quality care to the larger mission of building an enabling
environment for children with disabilities, the dedication and commitment
shown by the B J Wadia Children’s Hospital is truly rare and special.
ALSO READ:With
various interventions for disabled kids under one roof, Muskan brings a smile
to people’s faces
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/20946
