ver the last 40 years Sai Baba has pursued an extraordinary health policy. The situation is clear. India as greatest democracy in the world has a population of 1 billion people. In the area of healthcare there are only 3.5 hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants. Sai Baba has placed an emphasis both on primary health care and hospital health care. A beginning was made with the inauguration of the Sri Sathya Sai Hospital in Prashanti Nilayam in 1963. This general hospital now has 100 beds. A little later a hospital was built for woman and children at Whitefield in 1976. In 1980 this hospital was upgraded in a general hospital where male patients could also be treated. All branches of health care are provided free of cost in these general hospitals. We speak of such facilities as dentistry, ear, nose and throat treatment, general surgery, stomach and intestine specialization, gynaecology, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, psychiatry and rheumatology.
In 1991 Sai Baba astonished the entire world by inaugurating a Super Speciality Hospital of Higher Education at Puttaparthi. The hospital was built in a record time of 8 months.
It serves as a basis for broadening the public health of the entire district. There is coronary care and a completely equipped department for heart surgery. There are various facilities for diagnosing heart conditions, inclusive of catheterization and open heart surgery. The most up to date equipment is installed here for which nor costs nor efforts were spared. On the second floor there is a department for urology and kidney surgeries. There is also a place for neurological treatment along with diagnosis and surgical facilities. Training for nursing staff is also provided. A lot of emphasis is placed on the quick recovery of the patients. After a major heart surgery the patient is usually sent home in 10 days.
The hospital looks like a temple and once one has set foot under the central dome one feels engulfed with a feeling of love and care.
The unique thing about the hospital is that all the services are completely free of costs for the patients, just as are the other Sai-projects around medical science, education, and public welfare.
The success story did not end here.
In the year 2000 a new Super Speciality Hospital was build in Whitefield in a suburb of the metropolitan Bangalore.
The departments that are provided here are:
Cardiology and cardiosurgery
Neurology and neurosurgery
The institute furnishes for both specializations all services: diagnosis (even MRI and CAT Scan), medical intervention (12 surgical theatres), pre- and post operative care (95 beds are provided for intensive care), even as aftercare for 1000 patients a day.
The high claims concerning environment-friendly demands were complied with during the designing, constructing and running of the hospital. It is equipped with the most advanced information technology systems for maintenance of the archives and internal and external communication.
Thanks to the free provision of services, medical and operative care of the highest level are accessible to the poorest of the country, who enjoy priority qua nursing. This is also the case for children, young ones and the providers of the family. Because of this the pressure owing to ill health on the economy is reduced.