With a view to making paediatric tertiary health care easily accessible, Sahyadri Hospitals and Rotary Club of Pune Pristine have re-launched ‘Mission Prerana’. Underprivileged children with heart ailments will undergo necessary procedures and will be provided with financial assistance for surgeries as part of the programme that was initially launched in 2018. ‘Mission Prerana’ had benefitted 250 children until the pandemic struck in 2021.
While most of the outreach activities were stalled during the pandemic, the project was restarted to reach out to the maximum number of children in need of heart surgeries so that they can lead a normal life, Sudhin Apte, convenor of the project, told reporters.
Abrarali Dalal, an additional director and CEO of Sahyadri Hospitals, said that as part of the outreach programme a month-long cardiac screening camp for children is being organised from February 15 to March 15 at Sahyadri Hospitals-Deccan Gymkhana. Paediatric cardiologists will offer a free consultation to the children, while investigations and diagnostics are available at discounted rates. If any paediatric cardiac procedures or surgery is advised, efforts will be taken to provide up to 100 per cent financial assistance for eligible patients under ‘Mission Prerana’.
Amod Phadke, president of Rotary Club of Pune Pristine, who was also present at the media conference said that Mission Prerana aims to provide cardiac treatments with financial assistance for eligible patients. Complex procedures such as device closure atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects and paediatric cardiac surgeries will be covered under the programme.
Dr. Pankaj Sugaonkar, paediatric cardiologist at Sahyadri Hospitals, said that with the improvement in diagnostic facilities, the number of children getting diagnosed with heart ailments and those coming for treatments to Pune has increased.
However, due to poor financial conditions, many are deprived of timely treatment.
Dalal pointed out that Sahyadri Hospitals Deccan Unit has state-of-the-art tertiary care services which can perform high-end and complex surgeries for children.
