RC Madras Central revamps Gynaec OPD
(3rd from R), to his left, RC Madras Central president Prakash Vaidyanathan and RID 3232 public image chair C Muthusamy (extreme right) at the new visitors’ lounge.
Now patients and their attendants need not stand in an open area under the hot sun or get drenched in rain at the Gynaec OPD of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (IOG) at the Government Hospital for Women and Children in Chennai. RC Madras Central, RID 3232, has set up a 36-seater, fully covered visitors’ lounge spread over 2,000 sqft at a cost of ₹8 lakh. Also, the Fertility Research Centre (FRC) attached to the OPD has been revamped with partition walls and is neatly furnished at ₹3 lakh. The new lounge and Gynaec OPD upgradation were made possible with a CSR grant (₹11 lakh) from Meridian Global Ventures, garment exporters, owned by RID 3234 DGN and club member Vinod Saraogi.
The waiting area is named Mohini Saraogi visitors’ lounge, in the name of the DGN’s mother. “We will soon be providing an RO water unit and a canteen on this premises to make the patients comfortable while awaiting their turn at the lounge,” said Saraogi. IOG deputy director Dr Meena Suresh was looking for donors to take up the task of upgrading the Gynaec OPD, when she was directed by Tamil Nadu former health secretary P Senthil Kumar to approach Rotary.
“Dr Meena came to us when we were exploring medical projects in the focus area of mother and child three months ago. We visited the FRC which was then, a big hall with no partitions or cabins for screening patients, the lab was not well-equipped, and the entire place was not organised. But there was a steady arrival of patients, hence we thought of revamping the fertility centre, and setting up a visitors’ lounge,” recalled Saraogi.
The club’s IPP K P Sreekumar approached corporates to help fund the medical project, but Saraogi, after seeing the derelict condition of the Gynaec OPD, which is heavily crowded, came forward to fund the renovation work through his company.
New look fertility centre
Sporting a gleaming look, the FRC has a neatly partitioned OPD clinic, scan room, counselling room, IUI (intrauterine insemination) room, semen analysis lab, and semen and blood collection rooms. “After the revamp, the footfalls have risen from 30–40 to 50–60 patients a day at the FRC which uses the Assisted Reproductive Technology. At any given time, at least 10 patients will undergo investigation or minor surgeries here,” explained Dr K Kalaivani, director, IOG.
The Gynaec OPD gets around 120 patients a day. Thanking Rotary profusely, she said, “it was only after RC Madras Central started their work, the government woke up and began to deliver equipment at the FRC. Now, they have given us a seed money of ₹1.5 crore for the FRC-Level 2 which will come up shortly. Once again we will approach the club for support and monetary help in completing the expansion work.”
DG Ravi Raman said the visitors’ lounge and the upgraded FRC were excellent and “the project was well done by the club. Now, the IOG team will always approach Saraogi and this club to further improve the facilities.” The clubs are ready to work and support the hospital staff by providing medical facilities or in doing expansion work, he assured.
Club president Prakash Vaidyanathan said, “we are happy to reach out to society through this medical project.The IOG and hospital staff must keep asking us and we will be happy to do what they want.”
Usha, wife of Vinod Saraogi, said she was “thrilled” when a mother with a newborn said, ‘Madam, the facilities are excellent here.’
Pictures by V Muthukumaran
