The Department of Pediatrics is one of the largest and oldest departments at St Johns. It offers comprehensive care in all aspects of child health. The Department has 90 general pediatric ward beds, a Pediatric ITU with 20 beds and Pediatric Emergency room with 14 beds.

The General Pediatric OPD functions on all days providing growth assessments, vaccination, well baby and consultations for sick child visits. The inpatient wards house children with complex diseases requiring tertiary and quarternary care services.

The Department of Pediatrics works closely with the following departments and divisions for comprehensive care of children from newborns to 18 years of age.

1. Department of Neonatology – newborn care
2. Department of Pediatric Critical Care – PICU services with state of the art life support systems
3. Department of Pediatric Nephrology – kidney care of children
4. Department of Pediatric Surgery – surgical care of newborns to adolescents
5. Division of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation – Childhood Cancer, Blood diseases and Bone marrow transplantation
6. Pediatric Emergency Services and PITU – for all types of Pediatric Emergencies and children who need close observation and monitoring
7. Pediatric Endocrinology Services – sub specialty care in Endocrinology
8. Adolescent Care Services – Teen Care Clinic with Adolescent specialist
9. Infectious Diseases Clinic and Tuberculosis Clinic - Expertise in rare infections and complex TB
10. Unit of Hope – Comprehensive care of children with special needs
11. Asthma Clinic – special clinic for assessment and followup of children with asthma

History:
The Department of Pediatrics was initially in St Martha’s hospital with Dr RK Seth and Departmental Head. We shifted to St Johns in 1980 The Heads of Department since then have been Dr Padmini Urs, Dr MK Chandrashekar, Dr Gertrude Joshua , Dr Malathi Yeshwanth, Dr Swarna Rekha , Dr Subba Rao, Dr Kishore Phadke, Dr Sylvan Rego and Dr Sanjiv Lewin. The DCH programme started in 1985 and the MD programme in 1987. Since then services have expanded to include Neonatalogy, Pediatric Intensive care, Pediatric Nephrology, Developmental Pediatrics, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, Adolescent care and Infections diseases. Fellowships in various sub-specialities initially under the Department of Pediatrics are being conducted by separate sub-specialty departments.