Neonatal transport comes of age with new pilot project
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The Master Trainers’ Workshop on Neonatal Transport was inaugurated on February 22 at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo.
This is part of the ‘coming of age’ of the Neonatal Transport Service which was initiated as a ‘pilot project’ under the aegis of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children and has now become a national service, the first in South Asia.
The aim of the Neonatal Transport Service is to help minimise the dangers faced by neonates (babies in the first month of life) by transferring them from a hospital in their area to centres of excellence in the appropriate manner.
The Neonatal Transport Service was mooted by LRH’s Consultant Paediatrician-in-Charge of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Dr. Ramya de Silva who is also President of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians and former President of the Perinatal Society.
The pilot project was supported by the Family Health Bureau of the Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF which facilitated the training of local personnel by a team from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, United Kingdom.