Sathya Sai Baba sets up hospital for poor in Rajkot

By A Staff Reporter

MUMBAI: The first ever superspeciality heart hospital in Rajkot will be dedicated to the poor on August 4 by Dr A.N. Safaya, medical director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi, in Andhra Pradesh.

Like the superspeciality hospital at Puttarpathi, the Rajkot institution will also be managed on a non-commercial basis. ``A patient is not a customer and medical service is not a saleable commodity. Hence no charge will be levied towards doctors' fees, nursing expenses, hospital stay or even food,'' a spokesperson of the Sathya Sai organisation stated. The hospital has been set up in keeping with Sathya Saibaba's teaching that ``service to man is service to God.''

Doctors, Nurses, technicians and administrators will adopt a value- based approach towards patients. The Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation of Gujarat will provide volunteers for the hospital. Many cardiac surgeons, cardiologists and physicians of Gujarat have offered their services free of cost in a spirit of dedication to Sathya Saibaba.

Prashanti Medical Services and Research Foundation, a trust which has established this hospital, started rendering interim relief by setting up a small hospital in 1995 wherein over 350 heart surgeries were performed and over 26,000 patients were examined free of cost.

This hospital has basic infrastructure like fully equipped operation theatre, ICU, patients' wards, colour doppler for echocardiography, tread mill test machine, X-Ray facilities and a well-equipped laboratory.

The Rajkot hospital with over 3,500 sq.m of built up area on land measuring 9,956 sq.m will be modelled on the Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi.