Children & adolescents constitute 45 percent of the population in India thus, necessitating that major medical centres in any region have the requisite facilities to cater to the curative, diagnostic and preventive aspects of this age group.

Department of Pediatrics was headed by Dr S M Gupta from 1976 to 1989. Under his stewardship, the fledgling matured into an independent department with its own post graduate course. In 1989, Dr N Raizada took over the reins and started a separate neonatology unit.,Dr Daljit Singh became the head in 1994 and the department witnessed a rapid growth into various speciality areas. Dr B K Jain headed the department from 2003 to 2006 and added facilities and space and followed by Dr Harmesh S Bains, who was HOD from 2006-2015, under whose leadership the department has become a major referral centre for neonatology in the region and fellowship in PICU and NICU started in the department and MD seats increased. Currently Dr Puneet Aulakh Pooni is HOD since November 2015, she is also director of pediatric fellowship program and DMCH, dept of pediatrics is considered as one of the best teaching dept and the main referral centre for critically ill children from all over the region.

Currently 5 MD and 2 DCH students are admitted every year.
 
STATE-OF-ART FACILITIES
• Department of Pediatrics at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana is a prominent referral centre for children of the entire region
 
Pediatric Emergency
• Separate section with all facilities for Pediatric and Neonatal emergencies.
Pediatric ICU
• First 10 bedded critical care facility for children in the State and a separate High Dependency Unit.
• Approved by ISCCM and IAP for fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care.
 
Neonatology
• Tertiary Care Nursery along  with Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with state of art facilities and  equipment including mechanical ventilation, total parenteral nutrition, surfactant replacement therapy, exchange transfusion, care of extremely LBW babies etc.

Pediatric Haemato-Oncology
• Treatment of various childhood malignancies and  hematological disorders.
• Dedicated day care centre for thalassemics, providing safe packed red cell transfusion, iron chelation, leukocyte filters, multidisciplinary monitoring, family support and antenatal screening.
 

Pediatric Nephrology
• Ultrasound guided renal biopsy, special investigations for glomerular and tubular disorders,  facilities for pediatric peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis and continuous hemofiltration.
 

Pediatric Neurology
• Evaluation and treatment of  pediatric neurological disorders, facilities for EEG (including Video-EEG), EMG/NSC, BAER, VER,SPECT studies in children
 

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
• The department has been actively involved in conducting several courses including: 

   PALS course of Indian Academy of Pediatrics
   Jt Coordinator NZ, Dr PA Pooni,
   PALS instructors: Dr Deepak Bhat, Dr GS Dhooria, Dr Siddharth

   NALS course of National Neonatology Forum
 
   Instructors: Dr G S Dhooria, Dr Kamal

   BLS Course 

   Faculty –Dr PA Pooni, Dr Deepak Bhat, Dr. GS Dhooria, Dr Siddharth
 
   Asthma Training Module
   National Master Trainers –Dr PA Pooni, Dr G S Dhooria, Dr Siddharth  

  RNTCP TB Master Trainer
  Dr PA Pooni
 
  Respiratory Tract Infection Group Education Module (GEM) Course
  Dr PA Pooni
 

• Apart from zonal and state level conferences, workshops have been held to impart training in Practical Pediatric Oncology, Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and Neonatal Emergencies.
• The academic achievements are highlighted by the many scientific papers published in International journals and chapters in books contributed by the departmental faculty over the last years.
Activities related to the annual programs of IAP
•  Neonatology , PG, and  Undergraduate Pediatric Quiz
•  Nursing Pediatric Quiz
•  Breast Feeding, ORS and Adolescent Week celebrations
• Asthma day

Specialty clinics
• Child Welfare Clinic
• Newborn High Risk Clinic 
• Asthma Clinic
• PICU fellow up clinic
• Child Guidance clinic
• Pediatric Neurology and Epilepsy Clinic
• GI Clinic
• Immunisation clinic
• Nephrology clinic
• Ped hemato-oncology clinic
 

HONORS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND TRAINING

Dr Puneet Aulakh Pooni
• Visiting Fellow, Pediatric Intensive Care, RCPCH, UK
• Honorary fellow, PICU at Royal Alexandria Hospital, Sydney Australia
• Founder Secretary of Intensive Care chapter  Punjab State Branch
• Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at Cambridge University, UK
• National executive member Pediatric critical care, India
• Director of  PICU fellowship, DMCH
• Currently President of Intensive care chapter, Punjab
• Master trainer of Asthma Module, TB, RTI, PALS, BLS
• Joint Zonal coordinator of IAP ALS-BLS

Dr Jatinder Goraya
• Fellowship in Child Neurology from USA
• FRCP in Pediatric Neurology, Royal College of Physicians, Canada
• Visiting Fellow, Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, U.K.

Dr. Deepak Bhat
• Module training for Integrated Management of Neonatal & childhood illness (IMNCI) under WHO/UNICEF.
• State level training of middle level trainers of ICDS, Punjab

Dr. Gurdeep Singh Dhooria
• Fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology from St. John Medical College, Bangalore
• Certificate Course in Development Delay and Early Intervention, NIMH, Secunderabad
• IAP Pediatric Pulmonology Training Program, Chennai.

Dr. Siddharth Bhargava
• Selected for Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care, Cambridge University, UK Faculty for PICU fellowship, DMCH.