Friends we made on our way

Sankara Eye Hospital, Kolkata

Since its inception in 1978, Sankara Nethralaya, a unit of Medical Research Foundation, Chennai, has been receiving patients from the Eastern and North Eastern Region of India, seeking treatment and management for ophthalmic conditions. While the hospital in Chennai receives over 300 patients from this region every day, there were many more who could not travel the distance and avail the treatment facilities in Chennai. To serve more people from eastern and north eastern India, Sankara Nethralaya began offering its services, through collaboration, in Kolkata in December 2002, serving about 200 patients a day.
In July 2007, with the idea of expanding and offering more comprehensive care, it moved to an independent interim location at Raja Subodh Mullick Square. While at the interim location, Sankara Nethralaya with the support of the Paschim Banga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilini, constructed its own eye hospital in Mukundapur. The new hospital was commissioned on January 21, 2009 by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. It is a dedicated super specialty eye hospital and peripheral referral centre for the entire eastern region of the country and neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal. Keeping with the Sankara Nethralaya philosophy of community service, the new hospital at Kolkata has an entire floor dedicated to the community. Two state-of-the-art operation theatres and 24 beds have been specifically earmarked for indigent patients who receive treatment free-of-cost. The hospital also has a Teleophthalmology and Mobile Refraction Van that takes quality eye care to the doorstep of people living in rural and semi-urban regions of West Bengal. Mission for Vision and Sankara Nethralaya are jointly participating in the Kolkata Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Program sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank.
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