The Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children is a tertiary care children's hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. With a bed-strength of over 1100, it is now considered to be the largest children's hospital in the world. Established by public subscription in 1895 as the Lady Havelock Hospital for Women and Children, it was christened the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children in 1910. Both these distinguished ladies were the respective wives of successive British Governors in Ceylon - Sir Arthur Havelock and Sir Joseph West Ridgeway.
The Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children being the only Hospital for children in Sri Lanka serves as the national referral centre for paediatric medical and surgical care for Children below 12 years of age.
Currently the hospital has 6 general paediatric medical and 4 general paediatric surgical units. It further has specialised units in Accident and Emergency Care, Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Rheumatology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Neonatology, Intensive Care, Orthodontics, Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Burns and ENT Surgery. In addition to these Radiology, Pathology and Anesthesiology departments headed by senior consultants provide quality, assistance to both inpatients and outpatients.
The Outpatient Department(OPD) of this hospital which is open for services 24 hours a day serves an average of nearly 2500 - 3000 patients a day, out of which approximately 250 to 300 are admitted daily. There are visiting consultants who pride tertiary care service required for outpatients by considering clinics. In addition daily OPD clinics are conducted by the relevant consultants of inpatient units, and the visiting consultants of the OPD to maintain a continuous link with patients discharged from their units. There is also an emergency treatment unit and a diarrhea treatment unit which operate in the OPD to improve the quality of care. The outpatients’ attendance is over one million per year and about 50,000 children are immunised annually.
As this Hospital acts as a premier teaching hospital under the Ministry of Health, it is responsible for undergraduate and most of the post graduate medical and surgical paediatric training. Undergraduate and postgraduate training is provided by all units of the hospital. It is affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo and Post Graduate Institute of Medicine. The two university units to this hospital are also directly involved in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training. Intern medical officers are also accommodated for their six-month internship training at the hospital.
All services are free of charge in keeping with the free state health care policy of the Sri Lankan Government.
Dr Rathnasiri A Hewage MBBS, MSc (Med Admin) MACPE (USA) AMCMA (SL), MD (Med Admin) DIPPCA, a Certified Consultant in Medical Administration is the present CEO and Director of Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children.
References: (1) http://ladyridgewayhospital.com/index.asp