The KEM Hospital, Pune, India, is the
largest Non-Government Organization hospital
in the Pune District of Maharashtra State.
Run by the KEM Hospital Society, it is
registered under the Societies' Registration
Act 1860 and the Bombay Public Trusts
Act 1950. The hospital is a 550-bedded,
tertiary-level teaching institution, serving
not only the people of the city itself,
but also a large populace coming from
the surrounding urban and rural areas.
The KEM also runs a secondary level Rural
Hospital at Vadu, which serves a rural population
of about 68,000 people through a network of
primary health centers. All the major clinical
departments like Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics,
Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pathology and Radiology,
are recognized for the Pune University MD and
MS degrees and for the National Board DNB.
History
Four
beds and an institution is born…
In 1912, Sardar Srinivas Moodliar established
a small charitable dispensary with four maternity
beds in memory of King Edward VII on his own
land. Over the next 30 years, thanks to the
philanthropy of several individuals, this dispensary
grew slowly but steadily. By 1944, the hospital
had about 40 beds, an operation room, a labour
room and nurses' quarters. Basically a Maternity
hospital, figures show that an impressive 22.5%
of all registered births in Pune City in the
early 40s took place at the KEM!
One woman and
history is made…
In 1944, Dr.
Banoo Coyaji was appointed Chief
Medical Officer. The KEM never looked
back…A period of accelerated
expansion and consolidation began
with the aim of providing the most
up-to-date diagnostic and treatment
facilities in the field of maternal
and child health to all -- regardless
of creed or economic capacity.
Banoobai envisioned an India where
health could dramatically improve
if women were empowered. Thus, family
planning, women and children's health
and women's empowerment became her
personal crusade.
As KEM Hospital's reputation grew, there arose
pressing public demand for it to provide wider
medical facilities for the people of Pune and
its environs. Therefore, in 1967 it was converted
into a 200-bedded General Hospital with the
addition of Medical, Surgical and Pediatric
Departments.
Once again, with her visionary outlook and
customary zeal, Banoobai initiated the concept
of taking medical care to rural outposts. Thus
in the late sixties, with the help of the late
Mr.Ram Shamdasani, was born the Vadu Hospital
which today services 22 villages and a population
of 68,000 people.
Trustees with
a Vision…
The hospital was fortunate to have a set of
very able and reputable heads of units, with
whose help the institution rapidly established
itself as one of the foremost hospitals in the
city. The Chief Medical Officer and her staff
were strongly supported in their dynamism by
a small band of dedicated men and women with
vision-the KEM Trustees and Governing Council
Members. They included the founder Sardar Moodliar,
and later Mr. N.B. Parulekar and Mr. F.D. Wadia.
The Trustees soon realized that KEM could not
survive and grow merely on philanthropy and
Government grants, especially as its ethos was
to treat the community across the board, right
down to the poorest. So in 1969, with a generous
donation from the A.H. Wadia Trust, the Hospital
built the A.H. Wadia Nursing Home to house private
patients and to increase its earning capacity.
Development
is the keyword…
In 1976, a modern five-floor structure was
built with the funds generated to commemorate
the Diamond Jubilee of the hospital. Named the
Diamond Jubilee Building, this was inaugurated
by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and housed the
general beds of most departments as well as
an expanded ICU and Dialysis Unit. A mirror
image extension to this building was completed
in 1987.
1978-1979 saw another five floor building,
partly funded by Terre des Hommes, Germany,
come up. Its subsequent development embraced
the Neonatal ICU (which was later relocated
in larger premises in the Banoo Coyaji Building)
and other services like the Ultrasonography
Unit, Endocrine Laboratory, new Operation Theatres
and an expanded library. Today it houses a Centre
for Children, the Physiotherapy Unit, various
Diagnostic Services, the A.H.Wadia Operation
Theatre Suite consisting of 5 operation theatres
and related facilities, the KEM Hospital Research
Centre, the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
and the Adult ICU.
Except for vertical growth of the Nursing Home,
there was no significant further building program
until 1999. In that year KEM built, with difficulty,
two new general wards and made space for an
expanded ICU and Nephrology Department. In 2002,
work started on the new Dr. Banoo Coyaji Building.
This is the core of an ambitious Master Plan,
which aims to streamline and rationalize the
whole campus, and to take care of the needs
of the next quarter century, during which period
KEM Hospital will also complete one hundred
years of service to its patients and the city.
