New Church-run Hospital Opens in India

November 15, 2011: A new Church-run hospital was inaugurated in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Sunday. Marking the 125th anniversary of the archdiocese of Calcutta, Coadjutor Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta blessed the newly constructed St Joseph’s Hospital at Phulbari in West Midnapore in the presence of Archbishop Lucas Sircar of Calcutta and dignitaries, 13 November.
The hospital, built by Czech NGO Likvidace Lepry (eradication of leprosy), has 100 beds and will also have outreach programs for tribal people in nearby villages, said Fr. Stephen Raphael, parish priest of Midnapore Church.
According to Fr Reginald Fernandes, director of the archdiocese’s social wing, Seva Kendra Calcutta, four out of every 10,000 people in Midnapore district has leprosy. In the last five months, 905 new leprosy patients were diagnosed in the district, said Fr Fernandes who is also the hospital director.
The hospital is established “for the benefit of the local people of Midnapore irrespective of caste or creed in general and the poor and the lower middle class in particular,” said Dr Tapas Francis Biswas from Kolkata who left his practice in Ireland and joined the hospital staff.