Hat-trick of heart hospitals sans billing sections!

Expanding its free-of-cost child health care facilities in the country, the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani chain of hospitals inaugurated its third paediatric cardiac care centre in Navi Mumbai on November 27. Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees from over 30 countries attended the function.

The hospital aims to train health workers to use the 'smart stethoscope' developed by Arvind Thiagarajan of Silicon Valley and screen 1,00,000 children in Maharashtra in phase one. The Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani trust said the Navi Mumbai centre will also be a global paediatric cardiac skills training centre for health professionals.

The Sanjeevani hospitals in Chhattisgarh and Haryana have so far done over 6,000 cardiac surgeries and 1,500 cardiac interventions successfully. Over 60,000 children have been screened—all free of cost. These children would be followed up and monitored for life in a unique ‘Gift of Life’ programme.

Dr Madhusudan said that they plan to set up 250 completely free medical diagnostic centres across the country to screen and ensure early detection and treatment of children with heart problems.

The trust will launch the first paediatric cardiac hospital sans billing section in Fiji in 2019.

At a conference on November 30, attended by West Bengal minister Gautam Dev, Madhusudan announced their plan to set up a free-of-cost centre for doctors wishing to pursue post graduation and training in cardiac sciences and a fourth paediatric free cardiac care hospital, for the children of West Bengal and the northeast region.