Fortis La Femme, a unique facility focusing on women’s health and maternity care launched advanced, level III, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Bhagat Chandra hospital, Dwarka. With the launch of level III NICU, Bhagat Chandra hospital now gets access to the super-specialised care and services of the NICU of Fortis La Femme that has many firsts to its credit, like saving babies weighing only 500 grams, probably the smallest surviving twins, and also establishing an exclusive Neonatal Emergency Transfer Service (NETS) in 2004.
Neonatal intensive care units are graded on the basis of services provided. Level I NICUs care for healthy full-term babies, level II offer care for babies born at greater than 32 weeks gestation and recovering from more serious conditions and level III NICUs offer advanced care, including assisted ventilation and Continued Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) to very sick newborns and pre-term babies. CPAP uses mild air pressure to keep an airway open in neonates suffering from respiratory distress.
Speaking at the launch of Level III NICU, Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah, Head of Neonatology, Fortis La Femme said, “There has been an increasing trend towards having premature babies and hence it is very important to have a well-equipped NICU to not only save these premature babies but also improve the long term outcome for these very precious babies. Our goal is to provide best medical care to these infants, which will alleviate stress experienced by their parents, since very often these babies stay in the hospital for months.”
Highlighting the full spectrum of services offered at the level III NICU at Bhagat Chandra hospital, Dr. Mallaiah added, “The NICU will be serviced by fully trained neonatologist, round the clock neonatal resident doctors, NICU trained nurses, paediatric cardiologist – neonatal ECHO – an ultrasound machine to detect abnormalities of the heart, paediatric surgeon and paediatric ophthalmologist for screening of retinopathy of prematurity and treatment and developmental clinic for long term follow up of premature babies.”
Retinopathy of prematurity causes abnormal blood vessels to grow in the retina, the layer of nerve tissue in the eye of the premature babies. This growth can cause the retina to detach from the back of the eye, leading to blindness.
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| (L-R ) Dr Upasna Bhagat, Dr C.M. Bhagat, Dr KC Aggarwal, Dr Raghuram Mallaiah & Dr Kamal Parwal |
Maternity care is a community based service and deliveries take place at all times in different hospitals, nursing homes and clinics of the model township. It is tough to anticipate when the newborn baby might need specialist care and very often, they may, need it on an urgent basis. To facilitate speedy transfer of babies to the NICU in case of emergency, Fortis La Femme has extended the services of Neonatal Emergency Transfer Service (NETS) to Dwarka. With this service, newborns born in the neighbourhood needing emergency medical care can be transferred with ease and utmost care to the level III NICU at Bhagat Chandra hospital through NETS. The services offered by NETS include a dedicated neonatal ambulance with transport incubator and ventilator to safely transfer the premature/ sick baby to the NICU.
Speaking at the launch Dr C M Bhagat, MD of Bhagat Hospital said, “Bhagat Chandra Hospital is an upcoming advanced 100 bedded secondary level health care facility, in Dwarka. Joining hands with Fortis La Femme is another step in providing most advanced level care for new born babies which is first of its kind in the surrounding areas.”
About Fortis La Femme
Fortis La Femme is a “boutique” styled hospital that focuses on women’s health and maternity care. It is part of Fortis Healthcare Ltd. Fortis La Femme, a unique facility, is inspired by the core belief that a woman is a very special person with special needs. We believe that her well-being needs to take her physiology, emotions, aspirations and anxieties into account. Appropriately, medical care at our facility spans Obstetrics, Gynaecology, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Genetic & Foetal Medicine, Neonatology, General Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery and Breast Surgery. Our facilities span all the stages of a woman’s life, from birth to menopause and beyond. Our patient-sensitive services are provided in a world-class facility with a discreetly elegant ambience laden with value-added conveniences. Fortis Le Femme commenced operations in August 2004, and since have performed more than 5,500 Gynaecological procedures and have delivered over 7,500 of them, brought sick babies by air ambulance to our Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), treated more than 2,500 sick babies in our NICU. Fortis La Femme based on patient centricity, state-of-the-art emergency response, integrity, teamwork, ownership and innovation, combines compassionate patient care with clinical excellence, to achieve a single-minded objective…Saving and Enriching lives.
About Fortis Healthcare Limited
Fortis Healthcare Limited is a leading, integrated healthcare delivery provider in Asia. The healthcare verticals of the company span diagnostics, primary care, day care specialty and hospitals, with an asset base in 10 countries, many of which represent the fastest-growing healthcare delivery markets in the world. Currently, the company operates its healthcare delivery network in Australia, Canada, UAE, Hong Kong, India, Mauritius, Nepal, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam with 76 hospitals, over 12,000 beds, over 600 primary care centres, 194 day care specialty centres, over 240 diagnostic centres and a talent pool of over 23,000 people. Fortis Healthcare is driven by the vision of becoming a global leader in the integrated healthcare delivery space and the larger purpose of saving and enriching lives through clinical excellence.
