The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Call to help poor patients

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Monday, Oct 29, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Call to help poor patients

Staff Reporter

Mar Thoma Hospital Guidance Centre celebrates Silver Jubilee

Thiruvananthapuram: The government should coordinate with hospitals and set up institutions offering free lodging and food for economically backward patients and those accompanying them.

This is necessary as hundreds of patients coming to major hospitals in the capital such as Regional Cancer Centre or Sri Chitra Institute cannot afford medical treatment or the expenses involved in staying in the city, Philipose Mar Chrysostom, Mar Thoma Senior Metropolitan, said.

He was speaking at the valedictory function of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Mar Thoma Hospital Guidance and Counselling Centre here on Sunday. He said that it was the poorest of patients who came to the centre and that helping them out was not a matter of charity but a divine duty. Showing humaneness to those lesser privileged should be considered as one’s responsibility, he added.

The Mar Thoma Hospital Guidance and Counselling Centre, which began in a small way in 1982 near Medical College Hospital in a three-roomed rented house, has today grown into an institution which is offering free accommodation and food to over 140 patients and those accompanying them on a daily basis. The institution is run solely on the basis of voluntary contributions and the donations given by those belonging to the Mar Thoma Church in the city.

Law Minister M. Vijayakumar and Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas were present at the function.

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