Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

The Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) is committed to providing state-of-the-art clinical services and quality care to children. It imparts the best possible undergraduate and postgraduate training and do community oriented research of public health importance. The Department consists of a group of dedicated full-time and honorary faculty to perform the above task. It has an outpatient clinic, which runs from Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. The inpatient consists of a paediatric ward with two units comprising of 65 beds, a neonatal unit with facility of admitting 10 neonates along with ventilatory support to eight neonates at a time and a round the clock emergency care looked after by fully trained paediatric medical officers and nursing staff.  In addition, the sick children are admitted to Private Wing and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) also. Sub-speciality care in neonatology, paediatric cardiology, paediatric haematology-oncology, paediatric neurology, paediatric nephrology and paediatric infectious diseases, is also provided by faculty trained in their subspeciality. The Department is ISO 9002 certified.

Emergency Service

The emergency service is provided round the clock throughout the year. The staff includes one senior medical officer trained in paediatric for at least one to two years, one intern and one fully trained supervisor, who is on call in emergency (ER) 24 hours a day. In addition, one faculty member provides on call consultant service. The staff is trained to deal with all sorts of paediatric emergencies, which on average are 100 cases paediatric emergencies a day.

Clinical Services

• General Paediatrics

The Department provides care to children having any type of paediatric problems. At present, there is 100 per cent occupancy of beds. The Department has 45 general ward beds, eight isolation beds, 12 semiprivate beds, five beds for neonatal step down unit and five semi-intensive care beds with full monitoring with the exclusion of ventilation.

• Sub-Speciality Care

At the moment the faculty trained in their respective field provides the following subspeciality care:

• Neonatology, Paediatric Cardiology, Paediatric Haematology-Oncology, Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric Nephrology, Paediatric Infectious Diseases;
• Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

Research

Presently the Department is actively involved in community-oriented research of public health importance. The current research projects include:

• Maternal and child nutrition and supplementation projects;
• Epidemiologyy, rapid diagnosis, cost effective community management and prevention of typhoid fever;
• Short course antibiotic therapy for childhood meningitis;
• Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori;
• Epidemiology of diarrhea diseases including Shigellosis and Cholera;
• Epidemiology of asthma;
• Community oriented neonatal care;
• Long-term effects of low birth weight in respective of growth, development, hypertension, diabetes and others;
• Maternal micronutrient supplementation and reduction of LBW.  

Teaching and Training

• Undergraduate Teaching

As a part of university's teaching programme, students are trained in common paediatric problems. The students do three months rotation and rotate through wards, neonatal and well baby unit, outpatient and emergency room. In addition, they get over 20 lectures and tutorials on common paediatric problems, and daily ward rounds. At the end of three months they have end-of-term examination consisting of OSCE and structured viva. At the end of the year they have annual examination consisting of MCQs and short essay papers.

• Postgraduate Teaching

The Department is recognised by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) for training in Paediatrics. The training is provided in structured format under a residency programme approved by the University's postgraduate education committee and CPSP. During their four years of training the residents rotate through different sub-specialities and ambulatory services. They have to write a dissertation as part of FCPS requirement by CPSP. They are assessed and evaluated every year by residency programme committee of the Department.

• Fellowship

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi