It is
Voluntary Health Services (VHS) – the city of Chennai now is famous for its
multi-speciality hospitals – of the many prominent now in South Madras – VHS
perhaps was a pioneer.... Voluntary Health Services came into being
as a registered society in 1958, with 25 acres of land approved by the State
Government in Adyar. VHS became a physical entity in 1961 when Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru laid the cornerstone of the first block of buildings. The
out-patient services, the diagnostic laboratory and the X-Ray department were
started even as the first block was under construction. The hospital was constructed on a land where
once occasional cows came grazing and tractors and cycles made long trails. It
has been providing quality healthcare at very low rates, taking care of the
poor.
Now its sprawling complex
and the service extended include : M.A.Chidambaram Institute of Community
Health; South to South HIV/AIDS Resource Exchange (SHARE); Tamilnadu AIDS Initiative (TAI); Rotary
Central-TTK-VHS Blood Bank and more ......
As you enter the inspiring
provider of medical service, one can see the statue in the forefront – it is that of Dr. K.S. Sanjivi, who conceived and ensured
functioning of VHS. A man of immense discipline, he believed that masses
had to be educated about health and hygiene; that it was not possible sitting
in the comforts of a hospital room. Dr. Sanjivi advocated a preventive approach
towards diseases. To cater to the different sections of society, several
branches were set-up in the outskirts of Madras. All these mini-health centres
acted like veins carrying the life-giving blood to the heart.
The hospital’s website
records that Dr K S Sanjivi, an eminent physician – scholar, was greatly influenced by Gandhian thought
and particularly by the philosophy of “Unto the Last”; he envisaged and made
available health and medical services to the poorest of the poor through the
establishment of the Voluntary Health Services in 1958. The underlying ethos of VHS is that of
prevention and cure of serious illness, fostering of the family as a unit for
medical care, and facilitating active community participation in the provision
of a continuum of health care, with special reference to disadvantaged groups
such as women, children and elderly. VHS manages an extensive community health
programme through 14 mini health centres located in the southern periphery of
the city.
Being a semi-government
body, VHS mainly survived through beneficiaries. The first donation came from
the Madras Race Club, that of Rs 5 lakh and the proceeds from a day’s racing.
Several top medicos in Madras had served freely in VHS. Balasubramaniam
Ramamurthi, considered as the Father of Neurosurgery of India, started the
Neurosurgical Centre in the hospital in 1977-1978. A generous donation from the trust fund of
Dr. A. Lakshmipathi, father-in-law of Dr. Ramamurthi, provided the building to
house the Dr. A. Lakshmipathi Neurosurgical Centre (ALNC), the second
neurosurgical department to be started personally by Prof. B Ramamurthi. A
group of eminent citizens of Madras such as the editor of The Hindu K.
Srinivasan, the legal luminary T.R.Venkatarama Sastriar, the Congress leader M.
Bhaktavatsalam and the industrialist M.A. Chidambaram all had provided
support.
Dr Sanjivi
is no more, but the man’s vision has ensured the infrastructure which continues
to serve the people.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
18th Aug 2014.
