Rela Hospital – Celebrates 10 years of Clinical Excellence with Sri Lankan patients

September 25, 2019

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A Decade of Medical Excellence in Sri Lanka! On an event organized in Sri Lanka on the 25th of September 2019, Commemorating the Institute of Liver Disease and Transplantation at Dr. Rela Hospital and Sri Lanka ‘s 10 years of Successful Association in Medical Collaboration. The event was gladdened by Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Hon. Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka; Mr. Faizal Cassim, Hon. State Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka; Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Director General of Health, Sri Lanka; Prof. Mohamed Rela, Chairman & Managing Director, Dr. Rela Hospital; Dr. Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy, Chairman- Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Rela Hospital; Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan, Vice Chair-Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Rela Hospital; Dr. Dinesh Jothimani, Director Department of Hepatology, Dr. Rela Hospital; Dr. Naresh Shanmugam, Director, Women & Child Health, Dr. Rela Hospital

Dr. Rela Hospital- Celebrates 10 years of Clinical Excellence with Sri Lankan patients

Colombo, September 25, 2019:
A decade ago 5 month old Poonam travelled with her parents to Chennai, India to meet Prof Mohamed Rela to find a solution for her liver disease that she was born with and to explore the possibility of liver transplantation. Prof Mohamed Rela had relocated to Chennai, India after his 22 years services at Kings College hospital, London to start a liver transplant program in India that would benefit the local people. It was a time when liver transplantation was a relatively rare procedure in small children and practically no one did liver transplantation on small babies in India. The parents took a bold decision to go ahead and do the transplantation. They were very benevolently supported financially by the Sri Lankan Airforce as father of the child was serving in the Sri Lankan Airforce. Poonam is now 10 years old going to school and having a life like any other child and is being monitored by the doctors in Sri Lanka for her post-transplant care. Since then, several Sri Lankans have benefitted from this association which Prof. Rela and his team have established with the Sri Lankan patients and doctors.

This celebration is to commemorate 10 years of successful association with Sri Lanka to provide clinical excellence and to thank the doctors who have done timely referral and provided after transplant care locally in Sri Lanka.

Prof Mohamed Rela, Chairman and Managing Director of Dr Rela Hospital, said, “Liver transplantation program at Chennai was started to provide a unique service to local population at reduced cost. Interestingly, the need for such a service was huge among patients from our neighboring countries also and over the last ten years we are completing 100 transplantations (52 adults, 48 Children) on patients from Sri Lanka. Prof. Rela and his team have operated on around 2400 patients from India and 30 other countries. An additional encouraging aspect for patients is that they can have access to treatment options with outcomes at par with international standards at about 1/10th the cost they would encounter in the western countries. With increasing need for sophisticated service, we launched ‘Dr Rela Hospital ’, a multi- specialty hospital in September 2018, with not only multi-organ transplant facility (liver, kidney, bone marrow, pancreas, small bowel, uterus) but also very comprehensive services in specialties like Cardiac Sciences, Infertility, Orthopedics and Spine, Neurology and Neurosurgery and Interventional Gastroenterology, Interventional Radiology and Oncology to name a few “.

In the last year since Rela Hospital was started, 206 Liver transplants have been performed of which 22 ( 8 Adult, 14 Paediatric) have been on Sri Lankan patients.

Dr Naresh Shanmugam, Pediatric Liver specialist and Director of Women and Children division at Rela Institute said “We always have special focus on children and 48 Sri Lankan children have undergone transplantation by our team in the last 10 years, with success rate of 98%. Our paediatric and neonatal intensive care is specially designed to support multiorgan transplantation such as liver, kidney, small intestine and bone marrow even in small children. Our children cancer centre has highly trained multidisciplinary team which provides medical, surgical and stem cell transplantation to children with cancer. Children, who have transplantation live a normal life, just like any other child and this celebration is a proof of that”.

On the occasion, Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan , Vice Chair, Medical Advisory Board ,Liver and Renal Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Rela Hospital , remarked :

“Our transplants patients from Sri Lanka represent quiet a mix from different strata, varied age groups and social background. They are students, teachers, bankers, doctors, businessmen, government employees, homemakers and so on and so forth. It is very heartening to see that all the efforts from the patient, their family and from the medical fraternity have translated into returning the patient to good health with excellent quality of life and productivity. A good portion of this credit goes to the benevolence of the Government of Sri Lanka, the Presidential Fund and the Sri Lankan people who have provided financial help to some of the needy patients through, Crowd Funding and NGO funding.

Another very important aspect that our team is proud of is the continuity of care that we have been able to provide for the patients over the years. This has been possible due to two main aspects, our very meaningful and mutually beneficial professional association with the doctors in Sri Lanka which has provided timely treatment for patients in need and also helped enhance the outlook of liver transplantation in Sri Lanka and the second is the untiring administrative and logistics support provided by our Sri Lankan associates in Colombo, Forte International – now our country office in Sri Lanka”

Dr. Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy, Chairman, Medical Advisory Board talking about Rela Hospital and the facilities it offers, mentioned

“At Rela Hospital, our uniqueness is the multidisciplinary team-work in all specialties and the spectrum of clinical service that we are able to provide from primary care to quaternary care. Our hospital has 14 operating theatres and 450 beds of which 130 beds are specialty based ICUs with focused team of doctors in each specialty. In addition, our ongoing research and academic activities help us provide evidence based treatments and solutions to complex medical scenarios”.

About Rela Institute- Sri Lanka Country Office:

Rela Institute- Sri Lanka Country Office is an information and facilitation Centre (Country Office) operating under Forte Group of Companies for Dr Rela Hospital, Chennai, India.

Forte International Pvt Ltd, is an organization that identifies itself as specialists in healthcare with over 15 years of experience in the field. Due to their stronghold in the healthcare industry, Forte International was appointed as the country office by Dr. Rela Hospital, Chennai, India, to take care of and serve Sri Lankan patients, with the support of medical professionals and doctors in Sri Lanka.

About Dr. Rela Hospital:

Dr. Rela Hospital , an International Medical facility, is a quaternary care hospital dedicated to fostering and responding to the needs of a diverse patient population from India and from all over the world. Rela Hospital is a multi-super specialty hospital in a sprawling landscape of 36 acres located in Chromepet, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.

The facility, with 450 beds inclusive of 130 critical-care beds, 14 operating rooms and sophisticated reference laboratories and radiology services, is conveniently located close to road, rail and air transport .Rela Hospital is led and managed by world-renowned doctors who are committed to healthcare.