Specialised care for kids with birth defects at district hospital

NOIDA: Children suffering from various birth defects, development delays, autism, etc can now get specialised care free of cost in Noida at the District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) that was opened in the premises of the district hospital on Friday. And on the very first day, doctors saw five patients.
Inaugurating the centre, UP women and child welfare minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the state has plans to set up one DEIC in each district, but she did not give a timeline. “Nearly 15 lakh children born every year in India suffer from birth deficiencies,” she said.

The centre is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to provide treatment to children with problems which can be treated with an early intervention. The third in the state after the centres in Lucknow and Aligarh, the DEIC will collaborate with the two government hospitals for getting referral cases and the government primary and community health centres.

The centre will also provide services like tooth extraction, counselling for special children, pathological examinations, eye and dental treatment, etc.

The DEIC is for those up to 18 years but will primarily focus on kids up to the age of 6. The centre has 13 staff members, including a paediatrician, a medical officer and a pathologist, who will examine children referred from government hospitals and conduct tests.

According to the paediatrician at the centre, Dr Swati, the kids can come from the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) of the Super Speciality Paediatric Hospital and Post Graduate Teaching Institute (SSPHPGTI) and the sick newborn care unit (SNCU) and can be examined here and given free treatment. They will be referred to higher centres, only if required.

“The children will be treated for birth defects, deficiencies, disabilities, etc. The special children and those with neurological problems and their children will also be provided counselling,” she said.

The staff has undergone training at the pre-existing centres, including those in Kolkata and Pune. Visualised and funded under the centre’s National Health Mission (NHM) scheme, the project has been executed on a public-private partnership model with Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT) as the executing body.