Established for the purpose of helping underprivileged children in Bolivia, the Albina R. de Patiño Pediatric Centre is a centre for curative, preventive and social medicine, run by a Bolivian medical team, which regularly benefits from the contribution of external collaborators.

It is a centre for the dissemination of the latest achievements in modern pediatrics, as well as for medical and paramedical training and scientific research.

Several wards with a total capacity of 45 beds are reserved for serious cases, infants and school-age children. The out-patients clinic, which offers specialized treatments for many different diseases as well as preventive and social pediatric services, provides over 35,000 consultations every year.

As for teaching, the Centre works in close collaboration with the medical school of the Greater San Simón University of Cochabamba. It offers courses in pediatrics, receives trainee pediatricians from the university and provides training and proficiency courses for nursing staff.

 
 

Disease prevention and family health education being the Centre's main concern, it is now aiming to improve the living conditions of one of Cochabamba's most disadvantaged areas, District 6, which counts 80,000 inhabitants. For this purpose, a Children's Feeding Centre for malnourished children has been built. It does not only give immediate care to these children, it also provides the families concerned with the information and means necessary to avoid such dramatic situations in the future.

This vast programme is implemented with the scientific and technical support of the CONIN (Corporation for child nutrition) Institute of Santiago de Chile and co-ordinated with all the social actors of District 6, as well as with the Simón I. Patiño Educational and Cultural Centre.

Mail. H. Patino (KIPUSMAIL 5.0)