Hospital saved. (People Making A Difference).

There are three factory hospitals in Jamshedpur, a remarkable industrial centre in the heart of India. Amit Mukherjee is an orthopaedic surgeon at one of them, the 210-bed Tinplate Hospital--which he helped to rescue from closure.

The hospital is owned by the Tinplate Company, itself part owned by Tata Steel. During the late Nineties the company cut its workforce from 5,500 to 1,700 employees and came under pressure to close the hospital or reduce its size.

Mukherjee had been engaged in community work for years, motivated by his faith. He quotes a friend, who told him, `You will feel His hand on your shoulder only when you attempt something that you know you cannot achieve on your own and ask for His help.' Now his heart was telling him to save the hospital--even though everyone told him it was not his job.

Mukherjee suggested to the Managing Director of Tinplate that the hospital's 35 doctors should run it as a profit centre. They set up an autonomous body, The Tinplate Medical Council, headed by the Company Managing Director and the Director of Medical Services. Mukherjee was made its Secretary.

When the hospital started to make a profit, the next step was to expand and upgrade its facilities by setting up an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). A local company, Timken India Ltd, agreed to finance it though the charitable foundation of its parent company in the US. But in the last week of September 1999 the offer collapsed because the Timken Foundation was unable to fund a commercial company and because the hospital had not been recognized by the government.

In response, Mukherjee came up with the proposal that the Tinplate Board should give part of the hospital premises to form a charitable trust, and would therefore be eligible for grants. It would house an Integrated Emergency Centre consisting of a Trauma Centre (for surgical emergencies), an ICU (for medical emergencies) and a blood bank.

He also addressed the issue of government recognition by obtaining a document confirming that the Indian government made no provision for private hospitals. He took the document to the Managing Director of Timken, and convinced him that if Tinplate registered a charitable trust and obtained income tax exemption this would constitute government recognition.

The Managing Director gave Mukherjee a month to finalize the necessary agreements--an achievement in itself--and in late January 2000 Timken handed over a cheque for the ICU. This made it possible for building work to start, with Mukherjee--an orthopaedic surgeon--as project manager!

The project was completed on time and within budget. The next step was the building of the Trauma Centre, with a grant from the Dorabji Tata Trust. Both the ICU and operating theatre have state-of-the-art equipment, which Mukherjee has obtained at greatly reduced price from its manufacturers.

All those made redundant when Tinplate downsized have life access to the hospital, as do other retired employees. These people can now have free treatment at the ICU and Trauma Centre, which they would otherwise have had to pay for at one of Jamshedpur's other hospitals.

The hospital continues to expand and improve its facilities--and the latest project, laparoscopy for keyhole surgery, is being funded by Tinplate itself. Not only have the jobs at the hospital been saved, but 32 new ones have been created. And Mukherjee and his colleagues have now taken on the medical services for two other Jamshedpur hospitals.