The Department was first established in 1956 at Andhra Medical College as 2 Units, with a 3rd Unit sanctioned in 1990. It serves as a tertiary care center providing level 3 care for neonates in the Government sector. Over the years the functionality of the unit has grown with the ventilator setup in 2006, CPAP started in 2012 and HFNC started in 2020. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was started in December 2015 and is currently equipped with 6 ventilators, 30 warmers , 11 phototherapy units, 4 HFNC machines and 1 CPAP machine. Today multiple procedures such as surfactant administration, umbilical vein cannulation, exchange transfusion and PICU line insertion are being routinely done. The patient care units are fully air conditioned, a first for the college and hospital.

The department has been providing services to 18% of entire Andhra Pradesh, covering rural and tribal populations from Visakhapatnam and the neighbouring districts. The department supports the 700‐‐800 high risk deliveries happening at KGH every month with 25‐40% of these births being admitted to the NICU for care. There has been a steady increase in the census of the IPCU (Intensive Pediatric Care Unit) to 400‐450 per month and the NICU from 200‐250 per month. It is a major center in the state supporting sickle and thallesemia children as well ‐ with 150‐200 children seen every month for regular follow up and transfusions.

A library was started in the Department in 2008 and now includes an e‐library as well as a manual library. The Institute for Child Health was started in the department in 1956 but was later transferred to Hyderabad. The department also runs a nutritional rehabilitation center for children at risk since 2012. In addition to their clinical duties, the staff and the PGs are actively involved in research and the department boasts