|
‘CMC, Vellore has a unique model of providing service to the community’
More than a century after its establishment by Dr Ida Sophia
Scudde, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore has attained gargantuan proportion
by the dedicated hardwork and services of subsequent generations of doctors
and other medical professionals who were motivated by a missionary zeal to help
the underprivileged in the society. Recently, the new V Benjamin block of the
Community Health and Development (CHAD) centre of the hospital was inaugurated
by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Dr Sulochana Abraham, head, CHAD,
in an exclusive interview with R Baby Manoj talks about the yeoman service
provided to the underprivileged by CMC.
Recently the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, inaugurated
the new block of the community centre of your hospital. The entire CMC community
was overwhelmed by the minister’s participation.
The reason for this meet was to celebrate 50th anniversary of the community
care department. We wanted to dedicate the new building to the memory of Dr
B Benjamin, the father of the community care department, so to say. Our Finance
Minister Chidambaram was kind enough to accept our invitation which itself was
a recognition of the services CMC had provided to the country for more than
a century.
What do you feel does distinguish CMC from super-specialty
corporate hospitals in the country? If it is the CHAD, could you throw some
light on its history and plethora of activities?
CMC was founded by Dr Ida Sophia Scudder, a great philanthropist from the USA.
She, on a visit to her missionary parents in South India, was moved by the death
of three local women after giving birth to their babies, as eventhough her father
being a doctor, the local customs did not permit him to attend to these women.
This made her to pursue medical profession and subsequently armed with a medical
degree from the US, she came back to Vellore and set up a one-bed hospital in
the year 1900, primarily to ensure health of women and children in the locality.
CMC spends around Rs.30 crore annually for ensuring the health of the poor.
It is the first medical college in India to follow the norm of Medical Council
of India, in having medical students trained in rural sector. Even much before
such a norm came into being, in 1954, visionaries like Dr Benjamin, and Dr BV
Koshi, who started CHAD as a six bed hospital with a small outpatient department,
envisioned this hospital to take care of the health needs of a large community.
Gradually the centre developed into such a stature to look after five villages
in Kanniampady block in Vellore. At that time, the centre was looking after
a population of ten thousand. Over the years, it became a 30-bed hospital and
now an 80 bed one. From just five villages at that time, we gradually expanded
to cover more and more villages. Our grassroot and middle level workers cover
the entire Kanniampady development block. In addition to that, we are also looking
after another development block with a population of 1,20,000. Apart from this,
we are looking after a tribal area of 20,000, and a slum area of equal number
in Ram Nayakkan palayam. Overall, we are covering a population of more than
two lakh fifty thousand.
Inside the city, we are covering Kanniampady development block. We have got
our grass root level workers. This has become a model first referral unit. Because
from the periphery, we refer patients to the hospital. In mid seventies, we
used to carry out about 8 to 10 deliveries. Today, we carry out 300 deliveries.
We do cicerian sections. From the primary healthcare area, we can refer a patient
because we have got an excellent information system.
How frequent are your visit to villages? Are you able to
solve problems at the primary level itself or help has to be sought at the referral
hospital?
Once a month we go to the villages. Seventy per cent of our problems are handled
at the primary care level, while the rest are covered in the hospital.
Do you provide support to the underprivileged, other than
fetching medical help?
We realised we cannot ensure health of the people without ensuring their economic
development. So we started in a small way, with socio-economic programmes, including
training in ordinary tailoring, embroidery, handicrafts and so on. Even we started
training in masonry, welding etc., so that women are empowered and they are
in a position to contribute to the health of the family. With this approach,
we are able to bring down the infant mortality, the perinatal mortality and
the birth rate of the community.
Is there foreign participation in terms of academia?
As far as education and research go, we have not only our medical, nursing and
other students, but also we train students from Scandinavian countries. As part
of Masters in International Health from Copenhagen, students spend five weeks
with us. Similarly, students from many universities in Sweden come here for
training. We have students coming from Israel too for an eight-week course as
part of their training in global medicine in primary health care. As far as
our research goes, there are large number of programmes and we try to do programmes
of national importance. We are a role model or more precisely act as a guiding
light for the rest of the country.
How much of the man power is utilised for the activities
under CHAD?
We have about 30 staff, excluding interns. As interns, we have got post graduates.
Over all, that is, for the peripheral area plus the centre, we have 150, including
the grass root level workers.
rbmanoj@expressindia.com
|
