During 1880s, Karnataka was swept by the plague — the dreaded disease of the time. While the epidemic claimed thousands of lives, the lack of adequate medical facilities had left an equal number of people afflicted by the disease to lurch in the dark.
Moved by the sorrow and the trauma of the plague stricken people, a team of sisters from Good Shepherd who had come to India on an invitation by the Bishop in Mysore, started a hospital with just an out-patient facility. At that time, PETA, now known as Victoria hospital was the only health care institute.
The same hospital which was started in a small structure in 1886 has now grown into one of the prime healthcare destinations of the IT city particularly for the poor and middle class. And that hospital is St Martha’s Hospital.
The sisters started the institution with a vision to bring reconciliation and healing to the broken world and to serve people specially women and children.
As the time passed by and the city grew, the hospital also grew. Initially, it was a 50 bed hospital on 20 acres of land gifted by the Maharaja of Mysore. Currently, the hospital is located on Nrupathunga Road and has 550 beds.
In the decade of sixties, the sisters allowed the hospital to be used for the training of medical students of St Johns Catholic Medical College during which several other structures where added to the hospital. It was called the “People Hospital”. The hospital offers various facilities to help the people. It’s a private hospital that most of the poor prefer as there is concession given to one-third patients depending on the severity of the case.
The hospital has established a Stroke Rehabilitation Centre, the DOTS programme under the National TB control programme, special wards, H1N1 wards, CT scan, ultra sound, blood bank which separates the blood components.
St Martha’s has been one of the best colleges of nursing. With a single `60 consultation fee, a patient can visit any number of doctors in a span of two weeks.
St Martha’s has been awarded the ‘Best DOTS hospital’ for the last three years.
Training of nurses and midwives, internships for pharmacists and doctors and post graduate training for doctors are among the training programmes offered. According to reports the number of in-patients has risen from 7,050 in 1965 to 20,200 in 2010.The number of out-patients has also increased from 22,700 in the same year to over 2,50,000 in 2010.
The hospital is a no smoking zone. All the buildings follow rainwater harvesting, and the number of trees planted in the hospital premises keep on increasing.
Since 125 years, the hospital has grown immensely but the administration still remains with the Sisters of Good Shepherd