Residents of CC Block got a piece of good news on Monday. The block's puja committee initiated the formation of a charitable health clinic with some local doctors offering their services for free.
"New Town still does not have a government hospital. The private set-ups are expensive. Where would poor people go with health issues? There is no concept of the family physician any more. Nor is there any local dispensary. So we have been discussing how to address the situation,” secretary Biman Samaddar said.
General physican Sushanta Jha has volunteered his service. “I am staying in this block for two years now since I retired from the Durgapur Steel Plant hospital. If people need my services I am ready to help. That way, I too can be in touch with my training.”
Dr Rahul Anand, who runs Care Genix, a pathology clinic in BE Block, had brought a gift along —an instant blood sugar testing kit. “I heard the clinic organizers had procured a blood pressure testing machine. So I brought this along,” he said, announcing that he would treat the underprivileged free at his clinic and offer discounts to block residents on the basis of recommendations from the puja committee. The clinic offers homecare service too, the critical care and emergency medicine specialist added.
The programme took place in the driveway of a building in CC Block. “We will figure out where to hold the clinic in the evenings. Another clinic had started in our block run by the block residents' association but for that, one had to pay an amount one-third of which went to the building, one-third to the association and the remaining third to the doctor. So he did not remain free any more. We will not make any profit out of this,” Samaddar added.
Puja committee president Ruma Acharya mentioned how neighbours had taken her to the hospital after an accident when no one else was home. “They will be beside you but your cooperation will be needed to continue the clinic,” she said. Other than Jha, two other residents, a physiotherapist and a homeopath, have volunteered to man the clinic.