Free medical camp: Indian doctors reach out to Pakistani patients by fixing hearts

Over 500 patients were checked by cardiologists at the camp.

SUKKUR:

Hindu Panchayat, Sukkur, in collaboration with Shadhani Darbar Hayat Pitafi, organised a free medical camp in Sukkur where cardiac consultants from India checked patients for cardiac disorders or diseases.

The camp attracted people from various areas of Upper Sindh, including Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore. The majority of the patients were children.

The medical camp was the first of its kind in Sukkur where renowned cardiac consultants from the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi, India, including Dr Neeraj Awasthy and Dr Bhisham Shadhani checked the patients. More than 500 patients were checked by the doctors for various heart-related diseases.

Hindu Panchayat, Sukkur, president Mukhi Eshwar Lal Makheja told The Express Tribune that this was the first round of free camps. In the next phase, people in need of bypass surgery or other surgical interventions would be treated in Pakistan or be referred to a hospital in India on a no-profit basis. Children suffering from artial septal defects will be operated upon in Sukkur if the government agreed to grant visas and operation theatre facilities to the Indian doctors, he added.

The medical camp was supposed to run from 9am till 5pm. Patients from different parts of Upper Sindh started arriving to the venue in the early hours of the morning. The doctors, however, could not be there on time due to visa restrictions. The interior ministry had stopped the doctors from running a free medical camp in Sukkur because of visa regulations.



The doctors finally managed to get permission to come to the camp after much deliberation from the district administration of Sukkur, MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar and Pakistan Hindu Council president Chela Ram. They were able to convince the officials of the interior ministry to let the doctors run the camp. The doctors subsequently arrived at the camp at around 4:15pm.

A woman, who had brought her child to the camp for a check-up, told The Express Tribune that she had come from Jacobabad at 7am in the morning. She lamented that on the one hand, the government did not provide them proper health facilities, while on the other, they created hindrance for the people who tried to facilitate them. She was especially grateful to the organisers who had arranged food for the patients while they waited for the doctors to arrive.

Addressing the media at the camp, Dr Ramesh Kumar apologised for the holdup, blaming the interior ministry for the delay. He claimed that the doctors had come to Pakistan to serve humanity and had no vested interests. "India has a definite edge over Pakistan when it comes to the treatment of cardiac diseases and it was our desire to provide their expertise to the people of Pakistan." Dr Kumar was of the opinion that doctors served patients without any discrimination. "For them [doctors], there are no Hindus or Muslims."

Speaking about the relations between the two countries, he said that both India and Pakistan needed to soften their attitudes towards each other. "Together, we can even exceed the European countries," he exclaimed.

Hindus and Muslims have been living together for centuries and will continue to do so, he hoped. Dr Kumar warned that a third force was trying to bring both the communities at logger-heads. He demanded the government to provide fool-proof security to the religious places of minorities and install CCTV cameras at the sensitive sites.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2014.