NRI sets up hospital to offer medical facilities to tribals

Eturunagaram (Warangal): Guttikoya tribals and residents in agency villages here will now have access to quality medical facilities on charity basis, courtesy, Dr. Veeramalla Charanjith Reddy, a US based NRI.
He established a hospital at Eturunagaram after he learnt about the plight of tribals after going through newspaper reports. On Saturday, the medical facility called ‘Bannu Hospital’ was inaugurated for the public.
Founder of the hospital Dr. Charanjit Reddy who hails from Dammannapet village in Wardhannapet mandal completed his graduation from the Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal. He now lives in New Hampshire in the United States.
Speaking to The Hans India here on Saturday, Charinjit Reddy said “I have been working on the project for the past two and half years after I intended to something for the benefit of tribals and agency villagers who have been suffering a lot due to lack of proper medical care”, said.
Reddy said that his target area was villages under Eturunagaram, Mangapet, Tadwai, Govindaraopet mandals in Warangal district and Venkatapuram and Wazedu mandals in Khammam district covering population of about two lakh. “There are no hospitals in these areas to offer quality medical services to the locals. One government hospital in the town was not in position to offer in-patient services’. At Bannu Hospital two duty doctors would be available round the clock and a gyneacologist would visit daily.”
The hospital is an undertaking of Bannu Arogyada Seva Society which Dr. Chanrajit founded and serving the needy in the US for the past several years. ‘It is planned to develop a 60-bed capacity hospital here and initially we began with 12-bed capacity hospital’, he said.
The NRI said that his hospital was named after his mother whom his family members call affectionately as ‘Bannu’. “She always wanted to serve the health care needs of the poor in tribal areas, and is always an inspiring figure” the doctor said.
Now the main focus would be on infectious diseases like fever and on the needs of pregnant women. The hospital is equipped with X-ray, ultrasound equipment, laboratory, pharmacy and an ambulance fitted with medical ventilator and has a neonatal care unit. In future, it is planned to add three to four medical specialties such as pediatrics and orthopaedics. The treatment for Guttikoyas would be offered free of cost while the others would be charged a nominal consultation fee of Rs 30 to meet over head expenses.
Laboratory services and medicines would be offered at discounted prices, Dr. Charanjit Reddy said adding many doctors in Warangal and in the US as interested to visit the hospital to offer free services.
ITDA project officer D Amay Kumar, Mulugu ASP, Vishwajith Kampati, CRPF commander Aswin Verma who attended inaugural ceremony lauded the kind gesture of the NRI and said everyone should emulate him in serving the underprivileged.