About the Department

The Department of Neonatology is a newly created Department since Oct 2022. Prior to this Neonatology was under Paediatric Dept since 1990. The Department consists of a 30 bedded Tertiary-care Neonatal Intensive Care Unit along with a 12-bedded Step-Down Nursery and an 8-bedded Rooming-in Ward. In addition, it runs High-Risk, Follow-up and Well Baby OPDs for both in-born and out-born babies. It also gives cover to the in-born babies in the postnatal wards and ensures routine Newborn Screening is done for all inborn babies for common genetic disorders and deafness. The Department caters to treatment of critically ill inborn neonates and referred outborn neonates including premature and low birth weight babies and has state of the art equipment and technology to support the care of these high risk babies. In addition, it supports Departments like High-Risk ObGy, Pediatric Surgery, Neurosurgery, CTVS and Fetal Medicine in the care abd follow-up of high-risk babies. The average yearly admissions in the NICU are 1100-1300/ yr. The Department gets referrals from a wide area of coastal and adjoining districts of Karnataka. The Department is proud to say that with the dedicated effort of its doctors, nurses and allied health staff almost 98% of babies are discharged after successful management. The Department also practises

Developmentally Supportive Care both during the NICU stay and on follow up to ensure the best possible outcomes for these babies

The Department trains Postgraduates doctors pursuing their MD Paediatric course. In addition it trains MS ObGy PG doctors and MBBS students. It has applied to the NMC for starting the DM Neonatology course. It also trains Nurses in Neonatal Intensive Care and supports Allied Health professionals like Respiratory Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Pharmacists and Emergency Medicine Technicians in courses directed at management of neonates.

The NICU has state-of-the art facilities for caring for critically ill neonates including high-end ventilators, high frequency ventilation, Nitric Oxide Treatment and Whole-Body Cooling equipment for Therapeutic Hypothermia for Birth Asphyxia. It provides Parenteral Nutrition for babies unable to feed. It also has in-house investigative facilities like Amplitude Integrated EEG, Echocardiography, Neurosonography and Hearing Screening. There are also facilities for point of care investigations like blood gas analysis and glucose monitoring