Paediatric hospital to focus on poor nations

Mumbai: A 1,000-bed children's super speciality hospital proposed in Mumbai targets serving children from Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia along with city residents.

Bengaluru-based Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals has partnered with Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children (SRCC) to build and manage ‘Asia's largest paediatric hospital with state of the art infrastructure to support and connect all rural areas in and around Mumbai and other countries.

The hospital will be built on a one-hectare plot behind the SRCC complex where the first phase with 200 beds will be completed within 18 months.

The hospital will eventually have 250 critical beds, 15 operating theatres and an infrastructure in the outpatient department for treating 3,000 children every day.

Collaboration

The hospital will be run on the lines of Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, dedicated to children.

Announcing the collaboration with the Hrudayalaya Group recently, S. Ramadorai, President, SRCC, said, "It has been our endeavour to build a dedicated children's hospital which aims to subsidise treatment for the economically weak."

SRCC will fund the project that will provide care and support to underprivileged patients while privileged sections will be charged a fee. In other words, the rich will pay for the poor.

Devi Shetty, Chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya, said, "A large hospital focused on treating children is a void that hitherto remained unfulfilled."