Largest family health centre opened in Kerala
TRIVANDRUM: A Uae-based healthcare group has given a new lease of life to a government primary health centre washed away in the 2018 Kerala floods.
Transformed into a family health centre, which will provide great relief to the people in Malappuram batling the rising cases of COVID-19, it is also billed as India’s largest.
The VPS Healthcare headed by Dr Shamsheer Vayalil reconstructed the entire structure which has now got a modern infrastructure matching a contemporary hospital.
The chief minister of the state, Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the facility Saturday in the presence of prominent NRI businessman MA Yusuffali and other dignitaries online.
The group in a statement said the reconstruction initiative was part of Dr Shamsheer’s promise to rebuild the vital infrastructure of the state hit by the deluge of the century.
“Rather than catering to the medical needs of the rural population, it aims to serve a larger purpose of enhancing the health and wellness of the community,” it said.
“Distinct from a traditional government health centre, it has an open gymnasium, play area for children and other amenities to promote a healthy lifestyle.”
It boasts of an advanced lab and imaging department, observation beds with oxygen concentrators and a stabilisation unit to atend patients with low oxygen saturation.
Dr Vayalil said his group wanted to showcase a model for the future when they embarked on the mission to reconstruct the healthcare centre.
“Healthcare across the globe has been undergoing tremendous changes, especially since the pandemic outbreak,” said the doctorturned-entrepreneur.
“So we must adapt to the changes happening on the global stage and keep upgrading ourselves. So we built a health and wellness centre at Vazhakkad.”
Dr Vayalil’s VPS Healthcare has an intercontinental footprint running 24 operational hospitals and over 125 health centres.
A member of the Giving Pledge initiative, he has been actively involved in philanthropic initiatives during the back-to-back floods and pandemics in Kerala, his home state.
“It has been a collective effort, and this will not have been a success without the backing of the local population. We dedicate the centre to all with great pride,” he said.
Nestled in rural Malappuram, the ordinary people of the village had been depending on the primary health centre at Vazhakkad for their immediate medical needs.