A free clinic for marginalised people was inaugurated in Mullick Bazar on Saturday.

It operates out of the ground floor of a building on North Range Road.

On day one, around 50 people, mostly from the slums of Ward 61 of the Kolkata
Municipal Corporation, turned up.

A man at the counter wrote down the patients’ names. A nurse screened each one before the doctor saw them.

“The majority of residents here are from socio-economically marginalised families. Many of them suffer from chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes but the ailments have remained undiagnosed. Many others suffer from anaemia, infections and gastritis. Their conditions suggest malnourishment, irregular eating habits and unhygienic living conditions. Some others came with fever and bouts of cough,”
said a doctor who saw them on Saturday.

The clinic is part of an outreach programme called — Love Thy Neighbour — by the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata.

“This institute’s neighbourhood is economically marginalised and underprivileged. Many residents suffer from a host of ailments. That is why we decided to start this out-patient clinic,” said R.P. Sengupta, founder-chairman of the institute.

A spokesperson for the hospital said the clinic will be held twice a week. “It entails consultations for up to 50 patients twice a week by a doctor and pre-consultation assessment by a nurse. Investigations, as and when needed, will be free. Medicines will also be provided without any charges.”

A 51-year-old woman suffering from gut pain, who came to the clinic on the first day, said: “The nearby government hospital is too crowded. Private hospitals are out of our reach.”

If a patient requires in-patient neurological treatment, it will be provided by I-NK on a concessional basis, said the hospital spokesperson.

“Others will be advised to seek treatment in a government hospital,” she said.