SIVASAGAR, Dec 15 - The temple township of Sivasagar, erstwhile famed Rongpur of the glorious Ahom era, did not get much from its political leaders during the last seven decades after independence, but the people�s initiative did a lot towards establishment of a few institutions of vital importance and Choulung Siu Ka Pha Multi-Specialty Hospital (CSMH) at Rajabari in Thowra LAC is one of them.
The people of the district, especially the financially disadvantaged ones, can at least turn to a professionally run modern hospital which does not extort money or exert mental pressure on patients like numerous private nursing homes do.
ONGC Assam Asset, operating in the district since 1958, had long been receiving petitions from numerous organisations and civic bodies, including media fraternity to set up a modern hospital in the district as a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative to cater to the medical needs of the people in its operational area and also to further development of the state.
The Navaratna PSU, though a little late, did not deny them. It announced a healthy Rs 313-crore for such a project and entrusted the responsibility of implementing the project on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vaidyakiya Pratisthan, Aurangabad � a charitable trust established 1989 and committed to its humanitarian health services for social transformation. The trust now runs 46 medical and social projects, two multi-speciality hospitals in Aurangabad and Nasik.
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in presence of the then CMD of ONGC Dinesh K Sarraf dedicated the multi-speciality hospital to the people of Assam on May 15, 2017 through a bhumi pujan ceremony to ensure quality and affordable healthcare.
The CSM Hospital at Rajabari, 10 kms from Sivasagar town, has so far extended medical services to over 30,335 outdoor and 1,820 indoor patients and performed 750 surgeries till December 12 since its inception on April 17, 2018.
Talking to this Correspondent, Dr Prakash Kolnoorkar, CEO of CSMH, said that presently the 50-bed not-for-profit hospital is dedicatedly extending 24-hour service to patients of the North East at minimum cost, besides performing over 300 critical surgeries on patients from different parts of the state.
He said that some of the surgeries done in the hospital were with latest technological support which are possible only in a few advanced medical institutes of the country, thereby relieving patients from poor families from a great deal of financial stress. Over 5,000 dialysis have been performed in the hospital at affordable price for even the poor.
Senior ENT specialist of the hospital, Dr Keshavananda Konwar and Dr Jayanta Madhav Patgiri informed mediapersons that the hospital will soon set up a high-powered microscope( 530 Provodo Pro:M530 OpticsLeica patented Fusion Optics Technology), first of its kind in NE.
The doctors also informed that CT scan and MRI machines will also be installed soon and the hospital will start the second phase of services to the people, besides addition of a hundred more beds. The hospital will have Neurology, Cardiology and Urology departments, besides Blood Bank facilities from the middle of 2021. CEO Dr Kolnoorkar said that CSM hospital has been providing medical facilities to all categories of people at 50 percent of the usual market price.
The multi-speciality hospital is expected to grow into a full-fledged medical centre in the state soon with all modern facilities in medicine, paediatrics, surgery, pulmonary medicine, opthalmology, orthopaedics, gynaecology, endoscopy, bronchoscopy and obstetrics, besides providing training to paramedicos and technical guidance in the field.
The 2-km road to the hospital from NH-37 at the Rajabari TE-end needs urgent repair as poor patients from distant places come on foot. Fortunately, the hospital authority has provided free bus service to the patients from Sivasagar town from this month, which will improve surface communication to the hospital.
