Sacrifices crores of rupees to build a hospital for needy

He could have earned Rs 10 crore by selling his piece of land but decided to give it for free. At a time when land owners in Sanand -- the place synonymous with the Tata’s Nano factory-- were selling their land at triple the market rate, Hussain Momin bucked the prevailing trend.

Momin, who owned 1,200 sq yard plot in this area, had it in mind that he has to give it back to society. A self-made man, he did not think twice to build a hospital for the needy around his village on the plot of land that belonged to his forefathers. The hospital is named Adarsh Hospital. It is a multi-speciality hospital that opened its door to the patients at Telav village near Sanand on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Apart from the facilities that it provi­des to the people, it has a unique payme­nt option. “The patients will decide how much they want to pay and how much they can afford, but the treatment should not stop or be compromised,” said Dr Kartik Shukla, a leading orthopedic doctor from Ahmedabad, who heads the hospital.

Speaking about Momin and his noble intentions, Shukla said Momin (48) is an illiterate car mechanic from the same village. The man left his house at the age of 20 to earn bread for his family with no means to do so. A few weeks of roaming around saw him settling in a garage in Chiloda, under the wings of its kind owner Ambalal Patel, who over the years taught Momin the nuances of vehicle repairing.

After 15 years, Momin decided to head back home. Ambalal handed him over
Rs 7 lakh, the wages, which Momin had never sought when he was working . Back home with the little capital, Momin started doing what he learnt and his good work soon got him business. He was well settled. But not satisfied with just the work that he was doing Momin thought it was time for pay back.

The shy and illiterate garage mechanic refuses to talk much, but Dr Shukla goes on to say how Momin got a hospital made in the 1200 sq yard plot that was the property of his family. “The location of the plot made it a prime property and Momin had many offers from buyers,” Shukla said. Some buyers were ready to shell out as much as Rs 10 crore. Land price in the region has been skyrocketing ever since the Tatas shifted their Nano factory to Sanand from West Bengal.

But Momin stuck to his guns and the hospital became functional a couple of years ago. “Soon Momin found out that there were some malpractices going on in the hospital and it was shut down,” Shukla recalled and added that a doctor friend of his kept on egging him on to take up the responsibility of running the hospital.

“In my experience of treating people from the villages, I have always seen that unlike urban patients they rarely are in a position to plan a treatment and hence rarely have ready cash for treatment,” Shukla said. While shortage of cash makes them to compromise on treatment, many patients are forced to seek furthe
r procedures which often turns complicated.

Hussain’s offer was too tempting and Dr Shukla, who has his own hospital in Ahmedabad, accepted it. However, the busy doctor could not devote his full time for this hospital and Momin also felt that the services were not up to the expected level. He decided to temporarily close the hospital.

Once Shukla decided to devote more energies for the hospital, it was reopened recently and the doctor had clear idea as to how it should be and cater to various sections of society. 

“But then I realised that while the hospital being on the highway would naturally bring in a lot of accident patie­nts, we also need to have other specialists as it would be rather frustrating to refuse a women with a critical gynecological issue, who may turn up at the middle of the night from the neighbouring villag­es,” he said.

He discussed this issue with his friends and eventually a team of four gynecologists agreed to help him out. “We have three orthopaedic surgeons, four gynecologists, one ENT surgeon, one dental surgeon, one orthodontist, and one ophthalmologist apart from a general physician and will soon have a physiotherapist as well,” Shukla said.

“The best part of it is that no doctor has come to this hospital with any terms and conditions and all of us want to work,” he claimed. “My friends have also helped me out to get the state-of-the-art equipment for the hospital either as gifts or at heavily discounted prices,” he added. It is inspired by the gestures of Momin that others were also making contributions for the hospital to run and run efficiently. “What began as a basic

facility provider for patients has now turned out to be one of the better multi-speciality hospitals in this area,’’ said Shukla.

Explaining the fee structure, Shukla said that initially Momin was opposed to charging fees. It has been decided that while the treatment in the hospital will be chargeable to cover the costs of the hospital, the patients will be explained the cost of treatment and asked to pay whatever they can. “We have two sets of patients across the villages in the vicinity-- ones who are extremely wealthy and others very poor,” Shukla said.
They were able to recover the expenses involved in running the hospital because of volume of patie­nts. “It is all about trying to do something good,” said Shukla. “If the motive is right, things by themselves fall into right places,” he concluded.