Established in 1963 by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, St.John's National Academy of Health Sciences consists of a Medical College, counted as one of the best in the nation, a state-of-the-art hospital with 1200 beds for all medical and surgical departments including super-speciality departments, a top class College of Nursing, a Research Institute - the first in a medical school - with the most modern facilities including a Biorepository and an Institute of Health Care Management and Paramedical Studies, all spread over 132 acres of verdant campus in the salubrious climate of the Garden City of Bangalore.
Rev. Dr Lawrence D'Souza, director of the academy speaks to Vyas Sivanand about their mission and the challenges faced while running such a prestigious institution.
What are the main objectives of St John's National Academy of Health Sciences?
The mission of St.John's is to train healthcare professionals who are ready to reach out to the medically neglected.
In this effort, St.John's has succeeded to harmonise dedication to excellence with commitment to social justice in health care.
Through this institution, the Catholic Church seeks to make a significant contribution to medical education and service, the improvement of which is a primary need of the Country.
In this endeavour, its constant aim is not only to train medical, paramedical and nursing students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and orient them to the current needs of the country, but to undertake the training of teachers, specialists, research workers, health administrators, pastoral care personnel and community health workers for the overall advancement of the science of medicine and its effective application.
What are the initiatives taken up by you after taking over as director?
After taking over, we have been able to identify certain areas of improvement. For example, in nursing, we had a capacity of 30 in Basic B.Sc which we increased to 100; it was 20 in Post Certificate B.Sc. Nursing, which we increased to 40 and from 8 in M.Sc. Nursing, we now have 30 seats.
With this increase, we had to set the infrastructure right, especially classrooms, which has been given priority. We also have our own radiation oncology section which was previously outsourced. It is now complete and will start functioning on 15th January 2013.
We have also started super speciality courses in cardiology, pediatrics, neurology, nephrology, plastic surgery etc.
On the whole we are running eleven super speciality courses. We have plans to start super speciality courses in subjects like Pediatric Nephrology among others. We have also got the post-graduate seats enhanced.
We are the only medical college to have our own research institute, which is the St John's Research Institute where we can conduct Ph.D programmes.
Our alumni is also strongly supporting us and they have promised an e-learning center and a clinical skill laboratory on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the medical college.
What are the main challenges faced by you?
Our immediate concern is to expand our medical college. In MBBS, currently we have 60 seats, which we want to enhance to 150 seats.
There is enough patient load for 200 seats. This year is our Golden Jubilee and we intend to celebrate it meaningfully.
So, we will need bigger classrooms, and these will be provided in the Golden Jubilee block. The construction of which has already commenced.
We have enough patients for an increased capacity, we even have faculty for 150 students and there is enough clinical material for 200 students. The only need is infrastructure which we are ready to provide.
Our other challenge is to strike a balance between the sophisticated and latest technological development in medical science and still remain close to the common man.
What are the charitable initiatives taken up by you?
We have given a lot of importance to social causes and charity over the years and it has resulted in the uplift of many lives. We spend about Rs 10 crore in free care. And for Rs 50, a patient can meet any consultant of any department.
We have also ensured that patients gets affordable treatment at our hospital, thus, we are less costly than any other hospital.
We have a medico-social work department which has about seven people who are dedicated to assess the financial capacity of a every patient and recommend for concession.