Coming soon: Doctors at a school near you

Your child will soon have doctors and nurses besides teachers looking after himher If everything goes as per plan private schools across the city will have their own casualty units on their premises Trained nurses will be hired to supervise these units and handle any kind of emergencyThe firstofitskind initiative Docterz At Schools has been taken by The Pediatric Network to ensure treatment to schoolchildren within the golden hour The Network also plans to start a helpline to assist medicos in schools in serious cases until the injured children are shifted to nearby hospitalsThe first ones Three schools in Mumbai have already approved the proposal Our Lady Of Good Counsel High School Sion Vidyaben D Gardi High School and Junior College And Dhanvallabh English High School Mulund and Friends Academy Mulund and will be the first ones to set up the units If officials from the Network are to be believed 15 more schools are in the process of finalising the sameEmergency medicine is a crucial component of the healthcare system We are trying to start a stateoftheart casualty room in each school to efficiently handle a broad range of medical maladies right from unexplained aches and pains to injuries and lifethreatening conditions like cardiac arrests and burns Dr Atish Laddad paediatrician and founding member of The Pediatric Network told middayReady for emergencyThe Network will also arm schools with an emergency team that will comprise Pediatric Advanced Life Supporttrained nurses on campus and will also tie up with nearby paediatric hospitals besides providing training to school staff To oversee emergency responsiveness a paediatrician will visit each school once a monthMany private schools have medicine rooms but lack basic infrastructure So we will redesign these to handle emergency cases The units will have oxygen bed suction pump emergency medicine glucose meter and nebular machine along with other essential tools said Dr LaddadAnd the 247 helpline will provide guidance to the oncampus nurses in serious cases until the child is taken to a hospital Only the school will have access to the helpline which will be managed by paediatricians he addedSchools reactJecintha Kasabheadmistress Vidyaben D Gardi High School and Junior CollegeWe have been doing health checkups for quite some time But this approach will help in better management of highrisk students They screen students with risk for physical and mental health issues and specialists are able to further screen these students more effectivelyShivani Balodiprincipal Friends AcademyWe are always concerned about the safety of our children They have put up very good infrastructure on the premises everything is reported live to their team of paediatricians The SOPs to manage small ailments as well as larger ones make the school more secureFr Salvador DSouzaprincipal Our Lady Of Good Counsel High SchoolThis is project has a problemspecific approach which makes it special This year we ran a questionnaire amongst teachers provided by their The Pediatric Network team to identify highrisk students We could shortlist children with psychological and mental health issues Docterz At Schools provided a child psychiatrist to screen and manage these highrisk studentsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates