People’s hospital now offers free ICCU-Service To Mankind

Kolkata: It is a symbol of hope for thousands of poor patients across North and South 24-Parganas as well as the southern fringes of Kolkata. Humanity Hospital at Hanspukur, which offers free treatment to patients who don’t have access to proper medical assistance, has indeed lived up to its name. Now, it is ready with an ICCU that will be free for poor patients and will soon have 40 beds added to the existing 40.Continue Reading People’s Hospital Now Offers Free ICCU-Service To Mankind

Set up by Subhashini Mistry, a former vegetable vendor who lost her husband because she couldn’t afford to get him treated for a terminal illness, the charitable hospital has gone from strength to strength ever since its launch in 1996. The hospital now treats around 160 patients a day, many of whom travel from as far away as Bongaon and even from across the border in Bangladesh.
Being set up at a cost of Rs 45 lakh, the eight-bed ICCU will have state-of-the-art equipment. Only those who can afford it will be charged Rs 900 a day. “We receive scores of critical patients who have to be referred to other hospitals. It doesn’t help them because even though we treat them for free, they are either charged or turned away at other hospitals. This defeats the whole purpose of our hospital. So, we had been planning this ICCU for a long time. It should be rolling in a couple of months and will be the first free ICCU in this part of the country,” said Ajay Mistry, Subhashini’s son. He is one of the four permanent doctors at the hospital.
While a nationalised bank has provided half the funds for the unit, the rest will come from donations. Around 50% of the equipment has arrived. The rest are expected within the next fortnight.
It was in 1971, after her husband died — poor, ill, and without any money for treatment — that Subhashini
vowed no one in her village would end up that way. But it was easier dreamt than realized. The eldest of her children was seven and the youngest just a year-and-a-half old when her husband died. The journey she embarked on was riddled with hardships and obstacles. She started by collecting vegetables from neighbours and selling them at a local market for a small margin. She saved from whatever little she earned. Her neighbours laughed at her and relatives felt she was out of her mind. Two of her sons worked at a tea stall. They survived on boiled rice for years. Ajay, who was a brilliant student, lived in a children’s home and studied in a free school. He worked hard to become a doctor.
“I knew I had to be a doctor if my mother’s wish was to be fulfilled,” said Mistry. The hospital had started with just five beds and six doctors. It now has 32 doctors across 16 departments and about a dozen nurses. All of them deliver free services.
With the ICCU and the additional beds, Humanity is now on an extension path. But it will never lose sight of its priority — to serve poor patients, according to Mistry.
“We started this hospital to make treatment accessible to the poor. It hasn’t changed and never will. We will strive to make the hospital bigger and better, but not by charging patients. So far, we have not charged any patient, though we have a provision to accept a token amount from those who can afford it,” said Mistry. Medicines, too, are given away free of cost at the hospital.
Humanity is now looking for more doctors to deliver round-the-clock services. Barring Mistry, three other doctors work permanently, while the rest travel from Kolkata and are not available for more than 12 hours. “In order to be a full-fledged hospital, we need to deliver services throughout the day. Let’s hope we are able to do that in the near future,” said Mistry.

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