Safdarjung Hospital to be referral hub for Rio 2016 participants

Safdarjung Hospital's Sports Injury Centre has been selected as the referral centre for treatment of injuries for sportspersons going for next year's Rio Olympics.

Safdarjung Hospital's Sports Injury Centre has been selected as the referral centre for treatment of injuries for sportspersons going for next year's Rio Olympics.

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The hospital has also decided to perform and transmit live 25 unedited surgeries as part of a two-day Delhi Arthroscopy Course, 2015 beginning on June 27.

The surgeries will be performed by national and international experts in the field of knee and shoulder arthroscopy, minimally invasive surgery.

Since its launch in 2010 during the Commonwealth Games, the hospital has already performed 7,000 complex surgeries, which includes surgeries on athletes and defense personnel.

"These were all high class precision surgeries that help athletes go back to active sports in a few months post the operation," said Dr Deepak Chaudhary, director of Sports Injury Centre.

The hospital already provides diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitative facilities under one roof, and will soon start an out-patient department clinic exclusively for sport persons.

"Of late, we have been getting accident cases that require knee, shoulder, elbow and ankle surgery. Also, there is the usual OPD rush that makes it about 200 cases every day. Hence, we felt the need to create a dedicated clinic for sportspersons," said Dr Chaudhary.

The hospital also recently started the facility of online registration for its OPD patients, becoming the second government hospital after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to do so.

To train doctors in sports medicine, the hospital from this academic session is also starting a Doctor of Medicine degree in Sports Medicine. There is an approved annual intake of four students for the three-year course that is affiliated to the IP University.

"The course will help generate a pool of qualified doctors who will, apart from dealing with injury prevention and treatment, also help in devising sport specific protocols for performance enhancement," said Dr Rajpal, medical superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital.