Mumbai, Jan 25 (PTI) Dr Armida Fernandez, who has been selected for the Padma Shri, on Sunday stressed the need to focus on improving health facilities, especially palliative care and for the poor.
On Republic Day eve, the Union government announced 131 Padma awards for 2026, including five Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri.
Talking to PTI, she said, “The work I have been doing all these years could not have been done alone. This award belongs to the entire team of volunteers and organisations I work with in the field of healthcare.” Fernandez said she retired from civic-run Sion hospital after serving for 30 years as professor of the neonatology department as well as dean, with her work focusing on curbing infant mortality and deaths of mothers at childbirth.
“I also started the first human milk bank at Sion hospital and promoted breast feeding. After retirement. I am working in the slums of Mumbai to promote health care among mothers and infants and also against violence towards women. For the last eight years, I have been working in the palliative care field to improve life of patients having illnesses which can’t be totally cured,” she said.
“We work to improve the quality of their lives through counselling, medication,” Dr Fernandez said, adding the work is done at Sion and Cooper hospitals. Her home care facility is free of charge, she added.
She works with the help of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said Fernandez, who is the founder trustee of Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA). PTI MR BNM
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