Bhai Kanhaiya Sevapanthi Hospital
There is a Cancer Epidemic ravaging villages and towns in Southern Punjab, especially the districts of Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Sangrur and Patiala. Farmers are losing their farms as well as their homes, trying to pay medical bills for their ailing loved ones. The mortality rate of cancer patients in the area is 71.4% as the afflicted become aware of their condit
ion in very late stages, due to lack of diagnostic facilities as well as affordable treatment facilities. They have to travel to Bikaner, Rajasthan, on Train No 339, now known as the ‘Cancer Train’ for a 750 km round trip journey. The ground water, as a result of the ‘Green Revolution’ is now contaminated with deadly pesticides, as well as Uranium and Arsenic. In the Talwandi Sabo Area, there are reservoirs that were tested and contain up to 50000 times the safe limit of Uranium as defined by EPA. There are instances where all ten members of a family have Cancer. Some RO units installed by the Punjab Government do not remove any radio-nuclides from the water, and the poor rural population is not even aware of the dangers. Mahant Sahib is leading an effort to construct a modern Multi-Specialty Hospital with a well equipped Cancer Center with 150 beds on a 7.25Ac plot of land in Aklia Kalan village, on the Bathinda-Jaito road. We wish to start by buying a mobile cancer screening unit to be sent to villages regularly to provide diagnostic facilities to the poor farmers. In addition to the Cancer Center this Hospital will also contain the Mahant Tirath Singh Eye Care Center as well a state of the art Dental Care department, which will regularly screen candidates for a free cornea transplant. There will also be a modern Obstetrics and Gynecology department as well a Pediatrics Department to care of the needs of local families. The hospital will also have a well equipped Out Patient Department, where we hope to serve hundreds of patients every day, as well as a state-of the-art Diagnostic Lab and a Trauma Center. In order to further support the local farming families, we wish to add a first class Nursing College to this facility to train women from these villages and provide a source to income for families and remedy the shortage of qualified nurses in the area. This entire Multi-Specialty Hospital and College has been estimated to cost about Indian Rupees 150 Crores (about 24 million U. Dollars, when all the phases are completed including the Nursing College. Our focus initially will be on early diagnosis of ailments to prevent unnecessary deaths, for which our first phase of development will the Outpatient Department fully equipped with a diagnostic Lab along with a Mobile Screening Unit and an Ambulance. The cost of this phase is estimated at about Indian Rupees 3.2 Crores or about US Dollars 600,000. Even if we can save 75-100 lives every month with this Phase I, we will consider it a big achievement.
