Pediatric ICU (PICU)

The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is an area within a hospital specializing in the care of critically ill infants, children, teenagers, and young adults aged 1month-18years. The PICU of St.John’s Medical College Hospital is the most advanced treatment facility of its kind, providing the highest level of care for critically ill and injured children. Many critically ill children with complex conditions are referred from all over state and country. The PICU integrate many specialities and diverse technologies. The advanced technological resources in the PICU at St.John’s Hospital have resulted in excellent treatment results. The unit is staffed by trained and highly committed Paediatric Intensive Care physicians and provides critical care with high-end therapeutic expertise with exemplary quality at an affordable cost for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) admissions are amongst the most expensive. They significantly impact the financial dynamics of patient’s families. Severe illness, prolonged ICU stay, and ventilation, increased diagnostics and therapeutic procedures, drugs and other consumables were associated with increased costs.

The Financial Burden on most of the lower socio economic strata, lower middle class families are beyond their reach and far more than their family income. Many of these patient families lack health care insurance (lack of awareness and inability to afford), ESI, Govt. health schemes coverage. So, affording quality healthcare can easily take a toll on savings and cause financial stress to the most marginalized, economically deprived families and ending up with mortgaging their assets and building up huge debts. As a result, substantial numbers of parents, in the face of financial hardship, choose to withdraw the medical care (Discharge against Medical Advice) for severely ill children even when outcome is good. The parents said the escalating financial burden was forcing them to consider getting their child discharged.

Hence we are making an appeal to support such underprivileged families to provide a quality care.