A MoU signed between Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Italy and ChildLife Foundation. The Consulate of Italy, the Istituto Giannina Gaslini, largest pediatric care hospital in Northern Italy and ChildLife Foundation are promoting an important collaboration in the field of children health care with the objective of saving lives through better use of pediatric emergency rooms and telemedicine services.
“Following an adopt-and-operate model, the objective of the collaboration is to modernize and manage children’s ERs of government tertiary care hospitals by building capacity of the doctors, where the sickest and poorest children can access quality care 24/7”, added Dr. Ahson Rabbani, CEO of ChildLife Foundation.
In particular, ChildLife and Gaslini have identified a series of projects aimed at strengthening children’s healthcare. They plan to collaborate on the following initiatives:
I. Training – Jointly develop and conduct training courses for health professionals. Approximately 500 doctors will be trained over the next three years.
II. Telemedicine – Sharing best practices of telemedicine by both parties to improve and expand their respective Telemedicine network.
In this regard an MoU signing ceremony followed by dinner was hosted last night in Karachi by Mr. Sohail Tabba, Founding Trustee of ChildLife Foundation. “We are very proud that the telemedicine model which we started from Sindh will not only be replicated in other parts of Pakistan but is also receiving international recognition”, he said.
Dr. Ubaldo Rosati and Dr. Andrea Moscatelli from Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Italy travelled to Karachi for visiting Government Children Emergency Rooms and hold meetings with local partners. After the signing of the MoU, more projects are to be envisaged and implemented. Chief Minister Sindh, Mr. Murad Ali Shah graced this occasion as the chief guest for the MoU signing ceremony. “The Govt. of Sindh lays great emphasis on child survival and I am glad to share that according to MICS Survey by UNICEF, the child mortality rate in Sindh is 4.6% as compared to the country average of 6.5%. One of our partners since 2010 is ChildLife Foundation and they have been able to ensure quality emergency care services in Karachi and is now expanding across Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and the Federal Capital, Islamabad with 12 state of the art emergency rooms”, mentioned CM Sindh.
CG of Italy in Karachi, Danilo Giurdanella said, “The collaboration with Gaslini will enable ChildLife to save more lives and 500 doctors will get professional training from experts from leading hospital in Europe”.
Chairman ChildLife, Mr. Iqbal Adamjee thanked the guests and expressed his gratitude to the Chief Guest and all the distinguished guests of the ceremony. He said this collaboration in health sector is going to further expand bilateral cooperation between our two countries.
Many distinguished businessmen, government officials and media representatives attended the ceremony.