Encouraged by Ayushman Sahakar, Co-op Hospital plans it big

The recent visit of NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak has brought into the spotlight the Mumbai based Shushrusha Citizens’ Cooperative Hospital, which has been doing a wonderful job in serving the needy people.

Encouraged by Ayushman Sahakar of NCDC, the cooperative hospital is gearing up for a further facelift. It bears recall that NCDC has recently launched a Rs.10,000 crore funded scheme, aimed at extending financial support to hospitals, healthcare infrastructure, medical education, etc through cooperatives.

As it is, the co-op hospital has been appreciated for its role even in the past and one of its founder members, Dr N S Laud was decorated with the Padma Bhushan Award.

Established in 1969 by then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, the hospital is having PFT & CPET Laboratory to Blood bank & Pathology to X-Ray Department to ICU to Operation theaters to Dialysis Unit and many other units.

Talking to Indian Cooperative correspondent in Mumbai at the hospital premises, former chairman Dr Nandu S Laud said, “Our hospital is equipped with all the latest facilities and giving health care solutions to our shareholders under one roof. When the hospital was established there were only 1500 shareholders and the share value was 100 rupees but now there are 23k shareholders and the share value is 10k”.

“At the time of establishment, the hospital was a two-storey building but now it is six storey and having a branch in Vikhroli. We are also giving special concessions to our members like in consultation fee there is a 25 percent discount, in bed there is a 10 percent discount and we are giving many other benefits”, said Laud who was presented with Padma Bhushan in 2013.

He further added that, our Dadar based headquarters has a capacity of 126 beds and Vikhroli branch has 140 bed capacity. During the lockdown we had given our Vikhroli branch to the BMC for dealing with Covid-19. Our branch is spread over 35,000 square feet and was inaugurated by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The construction of the branch was started in 2014 and was completed in 2018″, he informed this correspondent.

Laud was also a disappointed man because Corona has affected their business a lot. “The present Covid Pandemic has created a financial crisis for us to continue our missions. Even the help from the Corporation and the State Government is not adequate. Due to this our hospital is facing losses and making a strategy to overcome the crisis. Before Covid our business was around Rs 5 crore but due to Covid-19 it reduced to only Rs 2 crore”, he said.

“I will tell you why our hospital is different from a private hospital. The unique feature is- there is availability of health care, accountability of health care, affordable health care and access to health care. It is a good example towards the Atmanirbhar mission of PM Narendra Modi”, he underlined.

The board of hospital comprises 17 people in which four-four seats are reserved for Doctors and Non-Doctors, 1-1 seats reserved from OBC and SC/ST and others.