Nazareth Hospital wilts under adversities

PATNA: "Where there's a will, there's a way," goes the adage. This should be all the more true of Jesuit organizations, given their sense of purpose and commitment to the needy. However, faced with adversities, Nazareth Hospital, a Christian missionary organization, located at Mokama, about 90km from the state capital, has virtually closed down from June 30 after 64 years of invaluable service to the state.
People of Mokama in general and hospital staff in particular are currently agitating and pleading with hospital authorities and government officials with the hope that their prayers would be answered and the hospital would resume its operations once again.
The hospital had been rendering yeoman service to generations of ailing people of not only Mokama but from distant parts of Bihar, in a cost-effective manner. Mokama MLA Anant Singh on Saturday participated in the dharna being organized by the hospital staff in front of the hospital. However, indications are that the people of Mokama are waging a lost battle.
The Nazareth Hospital was started by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in 1948 and has served lakhs of people since then. It now plans to move on to just pain alleviation, AIDS/HIV and palliative care.
Sister Usha, administrator of the hospital, attributed the decision to wind up operations to lack of enough doctors and nursing staff, employee unrest for higher salaries and financial crunch. "We have been facing financial problems for the last 10 years," she told TOI on Sunday.
While communicating the hospital board's closure decision, Sister Usha said, "The hospital was started in response to the felt needs of the people in and around Mokama. It was relevant till 1984 and served lakhs of people of this locality. As the years went by, the increase in state facilities and mushrooming of private health care facilities have made the idea redundant."
Indeed, Mokama has a government referral hospital. "But, it lacks proper arrangement and management for prompt and quality medicare to people," said Ram Sharan Singh, a retired engineer and convener of Navchetna Manch.
Despite financial crunch, Nazareth Hospital authorities are not open to the idea of seeking government grants to keep the hospital going. Sister Usha said government processes were cumbersome and their experience was not good. "Our experience in getting health insurance money for the treatment of BPL families is not satisfactory," she said.
MLC and state spokesman of JD(U) Neeraj Kumar, who hails from Mokama, had earlier said the government could do little to keep the hospital operational. "It is a minority institution run by a trust and doesn't receive any government aid. Hence, any government intervention is ruled out," he had said.