Tirupati: Children's cardiac centre to be made multi-speciality hospital

Tirupati: Buoyed with the stupendous success of its Sri Padmavathi Hrudayalaya, children's cardiac centre, the TTD has decided to develop it into a multi-speciality children's hospital for treatment to bring various super speciality facilities to children under one umbrella.

Disclosing this at a media conference held on the occasion of Hrudayalaya completing one year, here on Tuesday, TTD Executive Officer AV Dharma Reddy said that the super specialities including oncology, neurology, cardiothoracic, nephrology, paediatric care etc for children will be made available after the completion of the construction of the new building being taken up at a cost of Rs 320 crore, with a bed strength of 350, in two years.

Hrudayalaya is providing treatment free of cost under YSR Aarogyasri for the children in AP and under `Ayushman Bharat' health scheme for the children from other States, he said informing that the children heart care hospital is being run under TTD SV Pradana Trust.

The TTD on its part to ensure no dearth of funds for the hospital, it has introduced Sri Venkateswara Aapanna Hrudayala Scheme (SVAHS) to receive donations against which the TTD would extend VIP break darshan to five members as one time facility to the donor who donates Rs one lakh (for the treatment of one child) and so far 150 donated under the scheme which contributed to a sum of Rs 1.5 crore.

In addition, the TTD also decided to allot one Udayasthmana ticket against the donation of Rs one crore which also brought Rs 169 crore for the hospital, he explained while informing that SVAHS will be made available online to get more donations to provide treatment to more and more children suffering with heart ailments.

Apart from seeking equipment as donations which has been receiving good response strengthening the children's hospital, he said the TTD also wrote to the experienced specialists working in 10 leading hospitals like KIMS, Rainbow, Global, Apollo etc. to spare their services for treatment of children in the Hrudayalaya. This would facilitate providing treatment to more child patients.

In this connection, the EO said the hospital has for far performed 729 surgeries with a success rate of 95 percent taking the hospital to the enviable position of among the top 10 hospitals in the country and also secure recognition as world-class performance.

Answering a question, he said the TTD has already initiated optimum utilisation of available resources in its three hospitals SVIMS, BIRRD and Hrudayalaya including doctors and facilities by coordinating the three hospital services which he said enhanced the performance of these hospitals more so the newly set up Hrudayalaya.

As a preparation ahead of taking heart transplantation in the children's hospital, he said TTD applied for registration with Jeevandhan, for receiving cadaveric organ donation.

He informed that facilities like CT Scan, X Ray were thrown open, on payment basis to patients including those referred by private hospitals and doctors to extend quality service to the needy and also for optimum utilisation of these costly equipment which are still under utilised.

It may be noted here that the Hrudayala was inaugurated by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on October 11 last year while he laid the foundation stone for the construction of the new building for the children hospital, in May 2022.

Padmavathi Hrudayala Director Srinath Reddy said a 30-member team of doctors, paramedical staff and technicians in the hospital were rendering invaluable services resulting in patients coming from all States and enquiries pouring in from Middle East countries while one child from Bangladesh was treated so far. JEO Veerabrahmam, Hospital Chief Medical Officer Muralidhar and RMO Bharath were present.