By Matters India Reporter

Ranchi, August 22, 2020: The Roman Catholic Church’s medical college and hospital in Ranchi is at the frontline to serve coronavirus patients.

The Constant Lievens Hospital and Research Centre (CLHRC) at Mandar, 30 km south of Ranchi, capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, has set up a separate unit or ward to treat COVID-19 patients, said its director Father George Pekkadenkuzhy.

After careful preparations which include setting up measures for complete isolation, a separate treatment of the COVID patients and a safe location for treatment of other patients are in place at Constant Lievens Hospital, said Father Pekkadenkuzhy, a member of Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales (MSFS), or better known as the Fransalians.

Meanwhile, Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi and a member of CLHRC management board, has hailed the hospital’s preparedness as it has now opened up the doors for those in need of the treatment.

While the world and the country are reeling under the attack of the coronavirus and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to cure the COVID-19 positive as well as normal patients, CLHRC is read to render its health care with a personal, professional and compassionate touch, the prelate said in a press note.

According to him, the medical fees are affordable and mostly within the limits of a common man.

The hospital lab is equipped with the antibody Covid-19 test facility. The report is handed over the patients within 20 to 30 minutes.

Those who need rapid test Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Covid-19, swab collection is done at the CLH itself and sent to another lab. The result is handed over to the patient within 24 or 36 hours.

In general, COVID-19 tests fall into three main categories: PCR, antigen and antibody.

The hospital provides all patients, special treatment with best nursing care, medication and dietary facilities to create the necessary immunity to fight the virus.

The proposed 350-bed medical college and hospital (CLHRC) is established by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in 2018 and it is the first private-sector health care center in Jharkhand.

CLHRC is the second hospital in the country owned by CBCI; the first one is St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences in Bengaluru in Karnataka state.

The Daughters of St. Anne (DSA) Ranchi also have St. Anne’s Hospital and Research Centre (SAHRC) at Raja Ulatu village in the Namkum block of Ranchi.

The state currently has three state government medical colleges at Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur.

Jharkhand state was carved out of Bihar in 2000. Rich in mineral resources, the state contributes nearly 40 percent of total mineral production in India, with 48 percent of coal, 48 percent of bauxite, 45 percent of mica, 90 percent of apatite, and 100 percent of kyanite.

Some 26.30 percent of the population is tribal, which includes nine primitive tribes whose literacy rate is less than 10 percent.

The process of industrialization and urbanization in Jharkhand resulted in the displacement of 2.5 million people, 40 percent of the tribal. Nearly 12.5 percent of households in the state is in the grip of severe food insufficiency as against the national average of 2.3 percent. Some 43.96 percent of people are below the poverty line.

Nearly 80 percent of childbirth takes place at home. Maternal mortality is high at 371 for 100,000 live births. As many as 45 percent of women have reproductive health problems and 30 percent complain of reproductive tract infections. Some 70 percent of women in Jharkhand are anemic. Among pregnant women, only 38 percent receive antenatal care.

The infant mortality rate in the state is as high as 69 deaths 1,000 live births. Some 60 percent of infant deaths are neo-natal. Only 52 percent of children are fully immunized. Some 78 percent of children are anemic and 59 percent below three years of age are underweight.

More than 60,000 deaths occur every year due to tuberculosis in Jharkhand. The prevalence of leprosy is 10 per 10,000. HIV and AIDS poses another rising threat.

The state has only 3,958 health sub-centers whereas the requirement is 6,043. Interestingly, among the sub-centers, only 1,736 have their building, according to Bulletin of Rural Health Statistics in India 2012, released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Jharkhand also suffers from an acute shortage of healthcare personnel. The existing 194 community health centers have only 22 physicians, 61 gynecologists and 19 pediatricians.

The Constant Lievens Hospital and Research Centre is the Church’s response to this situation.

The first Christian missionaries to arrive in Jharkhand were the Lutherans in 1845 followed by the Anglicans in 1868. Catholics came in 1869. One of the successful Catholic missionaries was Jesuit Father Constant Lievens who came in 1885. The Belgian Jesuit is now a Servant of God, the first in the four-stage canonization process.

Father John Baptist Hoffmann, another Jesuit, was the brain behind the enactment of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, to prevent tribal land alienation. In 1909 he started the Catholic Cooperative Credit Society, which became the backbone of the tribal community’s economic life. Missionaries thereafter have continued working for the all-round development of the tribal, the poor, marginalized and neglected ones of society.