BANGALORE: Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital, that used to be a tiny shed with one tube light 25 years ago, is a refuge to thousands of poor from over 500 villages up to a radius of 40 km around Whitefield.

The hospital now in its silver jubilee year, was set up at Whitefield by Sri Sathya Sai Baba as part of his social welfare programme aiming at free quality medical care to all. Unlike the super-speciality hospital opened in January this year, this hospital has hardly been written about.

Set up at a time when Whitefield was a remote little village well out of Bangalore city limits, the hospital has provided succour to thousands of villagers who have been flocking to it from even districts of neighbouring states. Most of those treated here have come from villages that have no medical facility and actually exist only on maps.

The hospital has grown now to a 35,000-sqft building over four acres of land and has all the medical facilities. The hospital has state-of-the-art equipments and treats all cases from obstetrics, gynaecology and general surgery to psychiatry. It has a modern ophthalmology unit capable of cornea grafts. Knee and hip replacement surgeries have been performed here regularly.

The hospital's out-patient department treats around 500 patients a day. Three operation theatres in the hospital handle around 15 surgeries daily and an average of 35 in-patients are admitted every day. The best names in Bangalore's medical field visit this hospital as consultants. The hospital has a dispensary that gives medicines to the patients treated here free.

The essence of treatment here has been Baba's maxim that healthcare, education and water should be available free to all. Even the food given to the in-patients is free. The hospital has over the years treated over 2 million cases free.

The staff work in a spirit of genuine service and in a highly professional manner. Dr B.A. Anantharam, an eminent plastic surgeon says: "There is a subtle difference between free and charitable. The best equipment is used and it is high quality service."

Dr D.C. Sundaresh, an orthopaedic surgeon feels the decisions made here by a doctor are unbiased and the cost factor has no bearing. "What we do is what the patient needs," he says. Dr Narayana Murthy, a noted anaesthetist, feels that the faith people have in Baba and the medicare, brings them here as much as the free service.

In the 25 years from the time of its inception, this hospital has become a source of hope to many. For things such as plastic surgery to set right clefts to removing kidney stones, thousands have come and left with a cure.