In order to improve patient care services, a GMC Jammu associated hospital in Jammu has decided to start paediatric endocrinology OPD services on every Tuesday.

A health official said that authorities at SMGS (Sri Maharaja Gulab Singh) hospital on the directions of Principal GMC Jammu Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma have decided to start Paediatric Endocrinology OPD services every Tuesday.

He said the initiative will benefit people as it will be available at SMGS Hospital only and they will not need to go to super speciality hospital Jammu.

Paediatric Endocrinology is a speciality that deals with variations of physical growth and sexual development in childhood as well as diabetes and other disorders of the endocrine glands in the paediatric age groups, he said.

The OPD shall take care of children who have growth abnormalities (short or tall stature), disorders related to puberty (early or delayed puberty), menstrual abnormalities, hirsutism (excessive hair growth on the face and other parts of the body gynaecomastia (breast enlargement in boys), thyroid disorders, obesity, abnormal genitalia in children (undescended testes, micropenis etc.), adrenal disorders such as CAH, Addison’s and Cushing’s disease, disorders of the bone and parathyroid gland and diabetes mellitus, he added.

He added that nutritional advice and diabetes education would also be provided to parents and children at the OPD.

The Endocrinology OPD at SSH is functional every Wednesday and Saturday only.

Further, the Department of Endocrinology is also applying for DNB Endocrinology which will increase the trained human resource and lead to improvement of patient care at the hospital, the official said