Zahra Beau Naqvi Foundation Welfare Trust welcomed Dr. Nosheen Hamid as a Chief Guest to inaugurate the ceremony of the Newborn Screening Services at PIMS. The ceremony was held at the Children OPD PIMS hospital on Wednesday, 1st December 2021 from 11 PM till 12 PM.
Dr. Nausheen Hamid acknowledged the contributions of The ZB Foundation being the pioneers to introduce, implement and advocate for the Newborn Screening Protocol as a national-wide campaign across Pakistan. She also shared that the legislation of Screening for Heritable Disorders at national level is vital to enhance, improve, and expand the ability of government’s healthcare system to provide screening, counseling, and health care services to newborns and children who have, or are at risk for, heritable disorders. In her closing remarks, she specifically highlighted that she will be playing an active role to establish Newborn Screening program at National level so that no baby gets deprived of the birth right.
The ZB Foundation is a non-profit organization that has been leading the mission to make newborn screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism the birth right of every newborn since its establishment. Not only that ZBF has been at the forefront, leading the awareness campaigns on-ground as well as utilizing digital platforms to aware the maximum number of families as possible.
The non-profit organization has been providing free of cost Newborn Screening services at PIMS from past 3 years. The major challenge was to raise awareness among parents to bring the babies for the test and create the strong system within the hospital to promote the test. Dr. Nosheen played a crucial role in bringing all the stake holders from PIMS together to raise the awareness on Newborn Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism.
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Clinical Director and COO The ZB Foundation, Dr. Ali Raza shared that the Advocacy and Awareness in various departments at PIMS hospital Islamabad has encouraged the parents to bring their babies for the test and it resulted in 640% increase in sample size at PIMS hospital, Islamabad in just one month.
Mr. Ali Javed Naqvi, Chairman, The ZB Foundation Presented the shield to Dr. Nausheen in recognition to her outstanding contribution for advocating the need for Newborn Screening. The shield was also presented to Hospital Director, Dr. Ejaz Qadir on the behalf Children Hospital PIMS in recognition to its extraordinary contribution in institutionalizing Newborn Screening Program in collaboration with The ZB Foundation.
The other honorable guests who were the part of this ceremony include:
· Dr. Ejaz Qadir, Hospital Director PIMS Hospital
· Dr. Amjad Chaudhry, Joint Executive Director Children Hospital PIMS Hospital
· Dr. Shereen Gul, Head of Neonatology PIMS Hospital Islamabad
