Prof. Samir Gupta
Doha: Despite the complexities, survival rate of patients at Sidra Medicine’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is high and comparable to other similar centres globally. This is due to the state-of-the-art facilities, experienced team and holistic approach of care provided at the hospital.
The Division of Neonatology is the only level 4 NICU (quaternary care neonatal intensive care unit) in Qatar caring for babies with most complex conditions that require significant expertise and has recorded a survival rate of 95.2 percent.
“We offer the highest level of care for premature and very sick newborns in Qatar, as designated by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We provide neonatal care for babies requiring intensive and critical care, meaning we are equipped to handle the most serious and complex neonatal emergencies. Our team is prepared to provide immediate care for any unforeseen circumstances,” said Division Chief of Neonatology at Sidra Medicine, Prof. Samir Gupta, while speaking to The Peninsula.
“We can care for babies born at all gestational ages and with any medical or surgical or cardiac condition. Experienced neonatologists with specialised training and background provide neonatal care along with a multidisciplinary team of nurses, respiratory therapists and allied health professionals,” he added.
Sidra Medicine is part of the global Vermont Oxford Network database, which benchmarks more than 1,300 NICUs in the world. They are also part of European Congenital diaphragmatic hernia and International Neonatal pulmonary hypertension registry.
“About 40% of the babies we treat are born in other hospitals and transferred here due to their complex conditions and require specialised care; the other 60% babies are born at Sidra Medicine as they have an antenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease, surgical problem or complex genetic or multisystem issues,” said Prof. Gupta.
“In 2022, we cared for 450 babies on the NICU and the median length of stay for very low birth weight babies was recorded as 74 days. This is slightly longer than other centres, but is due to the fact that babies with complex congenital problems and life threatening conditions need specialist care and are all managed at Sidra Medicine,” he added.
The NICU at Sidra Medicine provides medical and life saving surgeries for newborns with complex problems in respiratory, cardiac, gastroenterology, renal / urogenital, neurological, ENT, ophthalmology and musculoskeletal specialties.
“The NICU is equipped with state-of-the-art bedside monitoring devices such aselectric velocimetry, near infrared spectroscopy, bedside echocardiography, amplitude-integrated electroencephalography, advanced respiratory support machines. We also have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the NICU,” said Prof. Gupta.
According to Prof. Gupta, advanced bedside functional echocardiography (fECHO) services are available only at few NICUs in the world. Sidra Medicine is the only centre in Middle East, Asia and Africa where bedside round the clock ECHO service to manage complex and very sick babies is available in collaboration with paediatric cardiology.
The ECHO training programme at the hospital, is only one of few worldwide. The department has so far trained six fellows in last four years.
Sidra Medicine also offers disease specific programmes, for conditions such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, short bowel syndrome, bladder extrophy and complex congenital conditions.
“We also perform complex surgical procedures to repair complex congenital or acquired conditions; offer a family-centred developmental care for the babies and the families with single family rooms only on NICU; and our trained staff in Family and Infant Neuro developmental Education Program (FINE) which enables supportive developmental care for all the babies and their families,” he added.
“The specific programmes available at the Sidra Medicine’s NICU contribute significantly to the care of sickest babies. We provide antenatal counselling for complex fetal problems in association with our maternal and fetal medicine and fetal cardiology services. We are equipped and have the expertise to provide life-saving management for all neonatal conditions at birth with multi-disciplinary management,” Prof. Gupta continued.
The NICU aligns with Sidra medicine’s strategy of providing safe and high quality care in safe environment that is a beacon of excellence and unparalleled patient experience.
“We provide the care of the newborn baby next to the mother on the postnatal care and neonatal unit to support couplet-care. The team of nurses and doctors always promotes parental involvement in neonatal intensive care. They promote skin-to-skin care (kangaroo care) which helps mother-baby couplet by improving outcomes and establish breast feeding. We also launched SNUGS, a neonatal parent support group to provide parents with access to the necessary support, resources and personnel. The group includes NICU physicians, nurses, allied health and lactation specialists and patient care partners,” said Prof. Gupta.
“We are very proud at Sidra Medicine to provide world class neonatal intensive care at the door step, with the best evidence-based approach that is comparable to any other established centre in the world. This not only includes managing any complex condition but also providing high quality care that is patient-centred and baby friendly alongside excellent parental experience.”
Various other programmes on the NICU provide patient-centred baby friendly care to improve long term outcome and parental experience.
