Chennai, April 9 (MExN): Saveetha Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) today announced their collaboration with Smile Train, an organisation providing free treatment for those with cleft lip and palate.
Announcing the collaboration on Friday, Saveetha Rajesh, Director, SMCH said that the partnership aims to create more awareness and eliminate myths surrounding clefts so that parents of children with clefts are well informed and bring forward children for treatment at an early stage. This collaboration will help support free cleft surgery to many underprivileged children in South region of India and especially in Tamil Nadu.
She said that the hospital performed 90 cleft lip and palate surgeries last year despite the COVID-19 pandemic and it was well-equipped with a multi-disciplinary team that included plastic surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, paediatrician, audiologists, speech therapists, psychologists and others.
Mamta Carroll, Vice-president and Regional Director, Asia, Smile Train, highlighted the comprehensive and fully free care provided by the organisation through collaborations with hospitals across the globe. She said that more than six lakh surgeries have been performed in the past two decades through collaborations with hospitals. The organisation presently had around 150 partner hospitals across India, of which six are in Tamil Nadu.
Apart from comprehensive care, she said that the organisation provided training for doctors and other healthcare professionals, and organised outreach and awareness programmes. She added that the organisation leveraged technology to the maximum extent possible to develop a sustainable and scalable model.
