I am proud to be a member at the Darent Valley Hospital. I joined the trust in April 2009 as a consultant in paediatrics. My specialist interests are in ambulatory care, respiratory, allergy and in sickle cell diseases. I have also been appointed as a honorary consultant in paediatric haematology at King’s College Hospital, London in May 2011.
I have been working in child health since 1991. I was a qualified paediatrician in India before coming to UK. In the UK I have worked in various hospitals around the country and gained experience in general paediatrics, neonatology, paediatric A&E, respiratory, allergy and in community paediatrics. I did research in ‘Sleep apnoea in obese children’ at ‘Barts & The London NHS Trust’ for one year. During this research post I did ‘obesity clinic’ in children for over a year and I am happy to see children with overweight & sleep apnoea problems.
I have started the sickle cell clinic at Darent Valley Hospital and established a regular outreach joint sickle cell clinic with the regional tertiary haematologist. This helped our sickle patients to have a one stop service here rather than going to London regularly for their check up. I am proud to say that we were found to be fully compliant at the recent ‘Assessment of Shared Care Arrangements for Paediatric Sickle Cell Patients’ by the ‘South East Coast Specialised Commissioning Group’.
I do see children with allergies regularly. During my training period I did paediatric allergy clinic for over four years and gained post graduate certificates in Allergy & Asthma. We have facilities to do skin prick tests and immunological tests here at Darent Valley Hospital.
Qualification
MBBS -Stanley Medical College. University of Madras. India -1990
DCH – University of Pune. India - 1993
MRCP – Royal College of Physicians - 1998
MRCPCH – Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health - 2001
Postgraduate certificate in ‘Research and Development’. (University of Portsmouth) - 2001
Post graduate certificate -II in ‘Mechanism and Management of Allergy and Asthma’ (University of Southampton) - 2002
Post graduate certificate - I in ‘Mechanism and Management of Allergy and Asthma’ (University of Southampton) - 2002
FRCPCH - 2008
Membership
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
British Medical Association
Medical Protection Society
South Thames Sickle Haemoglobinopathy network.
Publications/ Presentations
Which obese children should have sleep study?’ SA Mckenzie, A Bhattacharya,R Sureshkumar, B. Joshi, A Franklin, R Pickering, I Dundas. Respiratory medicine 2008. Nov 102(11)
‘Tips on … getting a good reference’. Sureshkumar R BMJ career focus. P117, 19 Mar 2005.
‘Natal and neonatal teeth’. Sureshkumar R. McAulay AH. Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition. Nov 2002. Vol 87, 3: F 227.
‘Ward rounds – Tips on…’ – Sureshkumar R. BMJ career focus. S180. 6 Dec 2003.
Major presentations
‘Early Aggressive treatment in sick Neonates with Cystic Fibrosis’ – Poster presentation at ‘International paediatric pulmonology conference’ in Nice, France – March 2008.
‘Which obese children should be investigated for sleep apnoea?’- ‘Paediatric research society meeting’ at Cardiff in September 2005.
‘Sweat test – Pitfalls: Two case reports’ – ‘Annual paediatric respiratory medicine’ meeting (UK) - 2003 at Oxford in September 2003 and won runner up prize for the presentation.
